C0PA3J. 45 



The ornamentation of the figure appears to have been of the usual type. 



Plate XLI. gives a drawing of the inscription on the sides of this Stela, taken from 

 the plaster cast now in the South Kensington Museum. 



Close to this broken Stela, and partly shown in Plate XL., is what may have been 

 an altar, in shape somewhat resembling a turtle. The back of the animal is without 

 ornament, and the claws, which are not in shape those of a turtle, are detached from 

 it, but the monument has been too much disturbed for the design to be made out with 

 any certainty. It is just possible that the alligator-like head which is figured by 

 Stephens (plates facing p. 156, vol. i.) as lying at the foot of Stela B may have 

 belonged to this nondescript animal. 



Stela D. (Plates XLIL to XL VIII., see also 5, Plate IV.) 



[Compare Stephens's ' Central America, 5 vol. i. p. 153 ; and Catherwood's 



Views, Plate 5.] 



Approximate height 12 feet. Average breadth 3 feet 6 inches. 



This monument (D, Plate I.) stands at the north end of the Great Plaza, immediately 

 in front of the flat-topped mound (No. 2, Plate I.) and faces the south. The design 

 is very elaborate and is carved in high relief. Unfortunately there is but little of the 

 ornament which has escaped serious damage and mutilation. 



The face of the principal figure is covered with a mask which has a large oval mark 

 on the forehead. The eyes and mouth of the face show through the openings in the 

 mask and the beard appears from beneath it. 



The serpent's head scroll rises from the top of the lobe of the ear, but this scroll is 

 more probably intended to be connected with the mask than with the human head. 



The centre face is absent from the girdle, and the apron which hangs over the top 

 of the girdle is ornamented with a grotesque head hanging forehead downwards, with 

 three ties over the forehead, and below this head with feathers and rosettes. 



Immediately above the head of the principal figure is a grotesque mask with loops 

 and ties over its forehead. Above this the sculpture, which is deeply cut, is much 

 broken away, but traces of two serpents' heads are visible; and protruding from their 

 mouths are grotesque-headed creatures with winged scrolls issuiDg from their 

 foreheads. 



The hands and arms of a human figure can be made out grasping the bodies of these 

 serpents, but all the remainder of the figure is broken away. 



In Plate XLV. the scrolls usually attached to the serpent's head are inserted in 

 dotted lines, merely as suggesting the ornament which probably occupied the position. 



