36 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



sculptor's hands. The right arm of one of the monkeys was broken off. The 

 ingenuity with which the mutilation was concealed is seen in figure a". All traces 

 of the broken member were removed, even to the fingers holding the plate, and 

 a necessarily abbreviated arm in relief was chiseled on the monkey's breast. A 

 small crack in the plate where the hand previously rested may have been caused 

 by the same fall or blow that carried away the outstretched arm. In other 

 respects the piece is perfect. The margin of the plate is ornamented with scroll 

 work. Stools similar to this one are found as far north as Mercedes, Costa Rica, 

 from which place Mr. Minor C. Keith obtained the largest and finest specimen of 

 the type in question I have ever seen. 



The top in figure e is more like a mortar than a seat. It is dished to a depth 

 of 3.7 centimeters and the inside is stained a dark color, as if it might have served 

 to mix paints. The border is undecorated and curved instead of being flat, giving 

 the whole the appearance of a shallow bowl. The latter is held by four monkeys, 

 two upright and two, alternating, on their heads. One of these is tailless. This 

 stool resembles the one, also from Chiriqui, exhibited by Captain J. M. Dow at a 

 meeting of the American Ethnological Society in 1860, and described as " a 

 circular dish about ten inches in diameter, with a rim supported by five human 

 figures, standing on a narrow circular foot, all carved in stone and hollow, prob- 

 ably a chafing dish for sacrifice." 1 



One of the stone stools in the collection is so much like that represented in 

 figure 13 of Holmes's work that it is not reproduced here. There is a similar 

 example in the Heye collection (cat. no. 7054) with this difference that the base 

 also carries a row of heads, inverted and smaller than the upper series. 



Mr. Heye possesses another Chiriquian stool (cat. no. 8286) of sandstone, the 

 hollow bell-shaped stand of which is curiously grooved as if it had been used as 

 a polisher. The grooves are vertical and form two series; those of the upper 

 series are the larger and are cut through the sides of the stand, while those of 

 the lower group are smaller and do not go through. This piece was collected at 

 Bugaba by Mr. Utley. 



Images. — This class of objects is not very large, the majority being represen- 

 tations of the human form. Some of these are fine examples of the art of prim- 

 itive sculpture ; others are quite crude and unfinished in appearance. The original 

 shape of the stone in figure 34 suggested the lines of some animal so that little 

 was done save to round the body and neck and bring out the eyes and nose a 

 trifle. A small image of a quadruped, with head raised and neck twisted half- 

 way round, is seen in figure 35. It is without merit either in conception or exe- 

 cution. This cannot be said, however, of the next illustration (fig. 36), which 

 may be described as representing a man or a monkey seated on the end of a 

 cylindrical pestle and holding something to his mouth. The remarkable head-dress 

 should be compared with that of the figure standing on one of the drum whistles 

 (see fig. 280). 



One of the large crude human images (fig. 37) has the appearance of being 

 perched on the end of a stone pillar. The head is relatively large, the hair or 



1 Bull. Amer. ethnol. soc, I, 11, New York, 1860-61. 



