COPAN. 55 



Stela M. (Plate LXXIV.) 



Height not measured — probably about 10 feet. Breadth 2 feet 6 inches. 



This monument is lying on its face, and is broken into two or three pieces. I was 

 not able to turn over the blocks of stone and examine the figure carved on the under- 

 side. A mould of the inscription on the back was made in paper, and a drawing from 

 the cast is given in Plate LXXIV. 



Within a few feet of Stela M is an altar (Plate LXXV., a & b) which may be roughly 

 described as a square-shaped block of stone fashioned into the form of a four-legged 

 grotesque animal without a head. In the flat surface, both on the front and back of 

 the monument, there is a large hole, and it seems probable that into these holes heads 

 had formerly been fitted. The animal represented may have been the double-headed 

 dragon already given on Plates IX. and XII. 



Close to this altar a stone head was found with tenon attached, which fitted fairly 

 well into the hole in the front of the altar. The head is shown in this position in the 

 Photograph on Plate LXXV. (a). There is a four-lobed mark on the forehead as 

 well as the peculiar marks already mentioned and figured on page 51, usually found 

 in connection with one of the heads of the two-headed dragon. The photograph 

 (Plate LXXV., b) is not sufficiently good to show clearly the hole in the back of the 

 altar into which, if the suggestion made be correct, the second head of the dragon 

 would have been fitted. 



The sides of the altar, between the fore and hind legs of the animal, are shaped into 

 large grotesque faces, and the top of the altar is also carved into a huge grotesque face 

 similar to the faces in and n in Plate XXIV. The ornaments over the joints of the 

 limbs and the small groups of tasselled balls will be found in other instances as 

 adornments of these dragon-like figures. 



Stela N. (Plates LXXVI. to LXXXIIL, a.) 

 [Compare Stephens's ' Central America,' vol. i. Frontispiece and p. 138.] 



Height 11 feet 6 inches. Breadth 4 feet 2 inches. 



This is the most elaborately carved of all the monuments now standing at Copan, 

 and is in fairly good preservation, although it has suffered some damage since 

 Mr. Catherwood sketched it in 1839. 



The sculpture is similar in general design on the front and back of the monument. 



A paper mould was taken of the hieroglyphic inscription on the sides of the 

 ciol. CENTK.-AMER., Archseol., September 1893. i 



