HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



the entrance of a chamber or carried by a priest, and the whistling 

 produced by the mere movement of the water in the vessel, while 

 walking. 



This specimen is unique in mechanism in ancient American 

 ceramics, so far as the writer is aware. Moreover, whistling jars 

 are practically unknown in Central America and Mexico. The 

 principle of the whistling jar is relatively common in the ceramic art 

 of the pre-Quichua inhabitants of the Peruvian coast, and the writer 

 has described and figured 1 an example from the coast of Manabi, 

 Ecuador, slightly different from the general specimens of this class 

 from Peru. In this well-known type the note is given out only when 

 the water is poured from the jar. Specimens have been described so 

 often and are found in so many Peruvian collections that further 

 description would be superfluous. 



The specimen just brought to the attention of students is but 

 another proof of the richness of the archeological field of Central 

 America, where so little intensive exploration has been undertaken 

 and indeed large portions of the country have as yet not even been 

 visited by the explorer. The same is true of Mexico, and it cannot be 

 too urgently insisted that our museums should consider codperative 

 plans for systematic and long-continued investigations in these 

 important areas. The writer firmly believes, after considerable 

 experience in Latin America, that the Middle American governments 

 would be extremely favorable to concerted action by our scientific 

 institutions if definite plans were formulated by them for the pros- 

 ecution of such work. 



Columbia University 

 New York City 



1 Antiquities of Manabi — Final Report; Contributions to South American Archeology, vol. II, 

 pp. 223-224, pi. c, 6, New York, 1910. 



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