215 



of this deity extended well into Costa Rica. In figure 367 there is the characteristic 

 prominence in the region of the eyes and the application of a wire coil to the 

 end of the nose to represent the hooked snout. The body of a snake issues from 



Fig. 366. — Gold figure of the alligator-god. 

 collection. '/' 



Heye 



Fig. 367. — Image of gold representing the alligator- 

 god ; from the Huacal de los Reyes, Rio General, 

 near Terraba, Costa Rica. Keith collection. V s 



the mouth, its head reaching to the abdomen. Three of the conventionalized 

 alligator heads have the curving snout broken off, only the one on the left-hand 

 side of the head being complete in this respect. The jaws are wide open, and 

 across them run bars for teeth. The piece is consider- 

 ably worn. The bright yellow color of the gold is only 

 slightly tinged with copper. The other example (fig. 368) 

 has a similar nose piece, but the fronto-nasal prominence 

 is not so well accentuated. Instead of the oft-recurring 

 head-dress composed of a flattened bar with attached 

 conventionalized alligator heads, there is a framework 

 enclosing five sigmoid designs in the shape of a figure 

 eight, each representing a multiple alligator motive. The 

 body and legs are human. At the shoulders and hips, 

 however, are four additional extremities, as if to give 

 greater weight to the reptilian attributes, each of them 

 ending in an alligator head instead of a foot. What 

 seems to be a double alligator-god from this same 

 region has just been figured by Professor Eduard Seler, 1 

 but the half-tone is so small as to leave one in doubt 

 concerning the distinguishing features. One of the nine 

 Chiriquian gold images exhibited by Mr. Alfred B. Taylor 2 

 at a meeting of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society 



1 Zeitschr. f. Ethnol, XLI, Taf. VI (third row from bottom), 1909. 



2 Golden relics from Chiriqui (paper read Oct. 5, 1865). 



g. 368.— Gold figure of the 

 alligator-god ; from the Hua- 

 cal de los Reyes, Rio Gen- 

 eral, near Terraba, Costa 

 Rica. Keith collection. '/« 



