46 COPAN". 



Turning now to the side view A, Plate XLVI., the body of one of the serpents whose 

 head is shown on the front of the Stela can be traced down until it ends in another 

 head with the serpent scroll attached to the back of it. Issuing from the jaws of 

 this lower head is a grotesque-headed creature with the winged scroll on its forehead. 

 This grotesque figure holds in its hand something to which it is not at present possible 

 to attach any meaning or any name ; it is of constant occurrence (compare Plate VIII.), 

 and it is hoped that farther investigations may determine its nature. On the upper 

 part of A, Plate XLVI., two grotesque figures adorned with bracelets, anklets, and 

 breastplates, and each clothed only in a loin-cloth, may be seen grasping the serpent. 



Following the design down the side of the Stela, below the serpent's head appears 

 the curved tail of another serpent, which cannot be further traced, and again below 

 this another serpent's tail, joined to a grotesque head hanging forehead downwards 

 with the serpent scroll attached to it. Below this, again, is another serpent's head 

 with a grotesque head issuing from its mouth, similar to the first described. The 

 body of this snake is lost at the bottom of the monument, where the carving is much 

 broken away. 



The remaining space is occupied by a glyph, formed in part of a grotesque head in 

 profile, with the serpent scroll attached to it, with the numeral seven in front of it. 

 Beneath the glyph is some rectangular ornament which cannot be satisfactorily 

 made out. 



The other side of the monument B (Plate XLVI.) is similar in general design, 

 differing only in details. The figure issuing from the serpent's head on the top of 

 the monument has in its hand a human head with feathers or scroll-work attached to 

 it. And the upper grotesque figure leaning over the body of the serpent holds a 

 mask-headed baton supported on its right arm. 



Oa the lower part of this side of the monument there are two Glyphs, the upper 

 with a number which is probably eight, and the lower with the number fourteen 

 attached to it. 



Although great care has been taken with the drawings of the ornamentation of this 

 monument, the damage which it has suffered is so great that it is by no means certain 

 that the connection of the heads and bodies of the serpents has been correctly made 

 out. 



The back of Stela D (Plates XLVII. and XLVIII.) presents an altogether 

 different form of ornamentation to that previously described, and only this one example 

 of it occurs at Copan. It is an inscription not in hieroglyphics, but in what may be 

 termed " picture-writing." The " heading " is practically the same as that of the 

 hieroglyphic inscriptions, but somewhat further elaborated, and the initial series ends 

 in (No. 6) a cartouche with a whole figure within it in place of the customary head. 

 It is not proposed further to analyze the contents of this inscription until others of a 

 similar character which occur at Quirigua can be offered for comparison, but the fact 



