COPAX. 49 



Altars G. (Plates LIL, b & c, to LIV.) 



At G is a group of three carved stones which are not mentioned by Stephens. 

 These stones may for convenience be classed as altars, although the use to which they 

 were put is very doubtful. All three were overturned and broken, and one of them is 

 almost entirely destroyed. Photographs of the two which are in the best state of 

 preservation are given on Plates L1II. and LIV. (a). 



Each end of Gl, the larger of the two stones figured, is carved into the shape of a 

 huge serpent's or dragon's head. The best preserved of these heads is resting on two 

 skeleton arms with claw-like hands. The upper jaw is, as usual, much exaggerated 

 and furnished with large recurved teeth. Out of the mouth is protruding the upper 

 part of a human figure with a grotesque head. The dragon's head on the other end of 

 altar has been partly broken away. The tongue is carved into the shape of a serpent's 

 head in the manner already noticed on pages 28 and 29. The head protruding from 

 this dragon's mouth is human in form. 



Both the dragons' heads are fringed with feathers, and between them is a hieroglyphic 

 inscription. 



On one side of the altar this inscription is so much weatherworn that I did not 

 consider it worth moulding, an omission which I now much regret. A drawing of 

 the inscription on the other side is given on Plate LIL (b) ; it is somewhat irregular 

 in shape, owing to the presence of a large round flinty nodule in the stone. Above 

 the inscription a niche is cut in the stone, which may have served as a receptacle for 

 offerings. 



The shape of G 2, the second altar (Plate LIV., a), is a reversal of the one already 

 described. In this altar the body of the animal forms a sort of arch connecting the two 

 serpents' or dragons' heads, and the niche is below. I can only suggest that it may 

 have been the custom to place brasiers with copal underneath the stone, so that the 

 smoke might ascend over the animal's body. 



The inscription from one side only of this altar is figured on Plate LIL (c). The 

 glyphs on the other side were almost entirely obliterated. 



The third altar of this group is very much broken and defaced, but it appears to 

 have been of somewhat the same form as that last described. No photograph of it was 

 taken. 



biol. cektr.-amek., Archaeol., March 1892. 



