SA VI LLE— GLAZED WARE 



an important collection gathered by the late Dr J. E. Austin, for 

 many years a resident of Puerto Cortes. In the Austin collection 

 was the glazed-ware whistling vessel that affords the special reason 

 for the preparation of this paper. 



The vessel (pi. n) is ioj^ inches high and has an extreme length of 

 g^4 inches from the back of the figure to the front of the bowl. It is of 

 a dark steel-blue color, with but little mottling or change of shade as 

 in many examples of this class of ancient American ceramics, an 

 exception being a small section of light-orange tint on the bowl and 

 faint traces of the same color on the back of the figure. In the 

 modeling of the seated human figure which the vessel represents, 

 slight attention has been paid to proportion, the lower part being 

 almost without semblance to that of a human figure. The legs are 

 represented only in the mass, and there is an incised oval where 

 each knee should be. The head is upraised and hollow in front. The 

 mouth is open and teeth are shown. Typical plugs are in the large 

 ears. The forehead is low and is covered almost entirely by a band 

 which winds backward down behind the ears. Extending from the 

 base of the head downward well on the back is a flap like an elongated 

 visor of a cap, which may be intended to represent a head covering. 

 On the chest is an ornament like a long pendant bead with a longi- 

 tudinally grooved cross-piece projecting through it; this pendant is 

 attached to a band with diagonal lines evidently depicting a heavy 

 cord, which is tied with a large knot on the back of the figure just 

 below the flap-like head covering. The ends of the cord are fringed. 

 A loin-cloth is shown tied with a large knot in the back. 



On the lap is an olla-shaped vessel held in place by each crudely 

 shaped hand. This olla is of the typical form that characterizes the 

 majority of specimens of this "glazed-ware" class of pottery vessels. 

 On the front of the bowl was formerly a projecting animal or bird head ; 

 in the hole is a hemispherical nodule of copal, probably placed there 

 by the modern finder of the vase. The back of the head contains the 

 vent of a whistle, the mouth or blowing end being concealed in the 

 front of the human figure below the waist at a point slightly below 

 the median line of and inside the body of the olla. The arms are 

 hollow and there are openings on the shoulders and elbows undoubt- 

 edly to allow the insertion of cords for the suspension of the vessel. 

 Thus suspended, and the bowl filled almost to the base of the neck 

 with water, a slight swinging movement to and fro, even that caused 

 by a gentle breeze, will result in forming a vacuum and the expulsion 

 of air through the whistle, emitting a clear and sustained note. It 

 was doubtless used in temple ceremonies, possibly either hung up at 



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