38 PALENQUE. 



In fig. o not only is there a fish attached to each flower, but an aquatic bird and a 

 turtle complete the design. 



Fig. g is copied from the painted ornament on a piece of pottery dug up by 

 Mr. J. Dieseldorf at Chajcar, in the Alta Vera Paz. 



Fig. I shows some pottery fishes also dug up by Mr. Dieseldorf in the same neigh- 

 bourhood. The knob attached to the mouth of each fish, which was at first difficult to 

 understand, is evidently the flower of the water-plant broken off from its stem. 



Fig. / is part of an ;< Initial series " in picture-writing from Stela D at Quirigua. 

 The inscription on this stela is one of those which has presented the greatest difficulty 

 in transcription. Nine or ten years have passed since the first drawing was made of it 

 by Mr. Lambert from a plaster-cast. It has been re-drawn by Miss Hunter, and 

 examined and corrected many times; and I have taken these drawings to Quirigua and 

 compared them with the inscription itself, but we are not yet quite satisfied with the 

 accuracy of the transcript. However, a great step in advance was made by the 

 discovery of the " Serpent-bird " which appears in this series ; but it is only quite 

 recently that, in what I had taken to be some scroll-work (in the right-hand upper 

 corner of fig. /), I detected the form of a fish whose presence is justified by the 

 water-plant which forms part of the design. 



Fig. 1. The presence of the fish in the decoration of Stela N, Copan (Vol. I., 

 Plates LXXIX. & LXXXIL), becomes now more intelligible. The stem of the 

 water-plant is apparently bound round and knotted in front of a grotesque mask, and 

 the fish is shown attached to the flower of the plant. 



Other examples of the use of the water-plant in ornament can be seen in Vol. I., 

 Plate XCV., where the great alligator which spreads over the top of Altar T (Copan) 

 is seen to be adorned with bracelets and anklets of the water-plant with fish attached 

 to the flowers ; and in Plate LXVI1I. of this volume, where the fish and water-plant 

 are used in the decoration of the frieze on the exterior of the Temple of the Cross. 



Fig. k is added to this Plate to show the form of a fish when it occurs as part of a 

 glyph in a hieroglyphic inscription. 



