32 COPAN. 



It has two niches on each side, and both these and the floor of the vault were full of 

 red earthenware dishes and pots. I found more than fifty, many of them full of human 

 bones packed in lime ; also several sharp-edged and pointed knives of chaya (a brittle 

 stone called itztli* by the Mexicans), and a small head, apparently resembling death, 

 its eyes being nearly closed and its lower features distorted. The back of the head is 

 symmetrically perforated by holes ; the whole is of most exquisite workmanship, and 

 cut out or cast from a fine greenstone, as are also two heads I found in the vault, 

 with quantities of oyster- and periwinkle-shells brought from the sea-shore in fulfilment 

 of some superstition. There were also stalactites taken from some caves. All the 

 bottom of the vault was strewn with fragments of bones, and underneath these a 

 coat of lime on a solid floor." 



There is another similar passage lower down the cliff and further to the north. We 

 made a ladder and succeeded in entering this passage and crawling to the further end, 

 which we found closed with a stone wall. It is about the same length as the first 

 passage described. 



There are two other passages of the same kind near the top of the cliff which I was 

 not able to get at, and they looked too small to crawl into. At some former time an 

 excavation had been made to reach them from above, but the stones had fallen in 

 again, and it did not seem as if any chamber was discovered. 



In two of the detached mounds, one on the south and one on the north side of the 

 principal structures, I found small vaults which had probably been used for burial 

 purposes, but was not fortunate enough to come upon any which had not previously 

 been opened. At the foot of one of the stone monoliths (H) in the Great Plaza we 

 dug up a number of stone beads and other objects (Plate XXII. , d), which were lying 

 only a few inches underground ; and a small stone ornament with a human face 

 carved on it (e), something like the one found by Colonel Galindo, and several frag- 

 ments of similar ornaments (c anciy). Single stone beads and flakes and chips of 

 obsidian were from time to time picked up during the excavations. 



* ifc<?!'=obsidian. 



%^ 







. 



PhoLno^avu^cC•c^upilEitmpBouM:o(^.Valajior^&C l - ,, 



Part of the Pace of a Step from tee Hieroglyphic Stairway. (No. 27, Plate I.) 



