REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 1 I 



Leaving Central America, Dr. Habel visited parts of Colombia, Ecua- 

 dor, and Peru, which he found rich in architectural structures erected 

 by the ancient inhabitants. Descriptions and measurements of some of 

 these are given in the memoir. 



The author, however, as we have said, devotes the principal part of 

 this work to a description of the monoliths at Santa Lucia Cosumal- 

 huapa, a small town in the Department of Esquintla, near the base of the 

 volcano del Fuego, at the commencement of the slope which extends from 

 the mountain range to the Pacific coast. The village is of comparatively 

 modern origin and is in the midst of an extensive orange-grove, which 

 yields so abundantly that the fruit is almost given away, and the great 

 number of trees is accounted for by the custom prevailing of planting 

 a tree by each head of a family at the birth of each child. A short time 

 before the arrival of Dr. Habel in the country the monoliths had been 

 discovered by a man who, in digging a field to prepare the ground for 

 planting cotton, came upon a large pile of stones which, on examination, 

 were found to be sculptured. To make drawings of these was no easy 

 task, for the dirt and moss attached to them had to be removed — a very 

 tedious work. To secure true copies of the originals, strings were 

 stretched over each slab, six inches apart, thus dividing them into squares. 

 The sketch-book was ruled in squares of half an inch, and in each of these 

 a copy of a square of the slab was drawn, making the drawings all one- 

 twelfth the linear size of the original. The slabs form an extended heap, 

 rendering it probable that there are others hidden from view which 

 further researches would reveal. All the sculptures are in low relief, 

 nearly all being in cavo-relievo; that is, surrounded by a raised border. 

 In seven instances the sculpture represents, according to the author, a 

 person adoring a deity of a different mythological conception in each 

 case. One of these seems to represent the sun, another the moon, while 

 the character of the others it is impossible to define. These deities are 

 represented by a human figure, of which the head, arms, and breast are 

 correctly portrayed. Four of the other sculptures represent allegorical 

 subjects. The stones on which the low reliefs are sculptured came from 

 the volcano of Ocatenango, and most of them are 12 feet in length, 3 feet 

 in width, and 2 feet in thickness. Nine feet of the upper part of these 

 stones are occupied by sculptures, while the lower 3 feet appear to have 

 served as a base. Very minute descriptions are given of each of these 

 sculptures, and au attempt is made by the author to explain the signifi- 

 cance of all the emblems, ornaments, figures, &c, forming the design 

 on each slab. 



The author also indulges in speculations as to the origin and symbol- 

 ism of the sculptures, which are ingenious, novel, and many of them 

 apparently very reasonable, while others will undoubtedly be accepted 

 with much hesitation, and will perhaps be rejected as untenable by 

 students of archaeology. 



The author was invited to visit Washington, where a room was pro- 



