194 General Notes. [March, 
both feet are nude, but generally the bottom of one or both feet 
i praece by a sole, which .is rolled up more or less to cover 
e upper part of the foot. The toes, with few exceptions, remain 
unprotected, and in no instance is the covering of both feet alike. » 
come now to speak of the artistic taste of the sculptors 
of Santa Lucia as an indication of the superior culture of the 
people to whom they belonged. In the representation of natural 
forms we attribute the highest culture to those people who imi- 
tate nature most closely in her best manifestations. For this rea- 
son we should attribute to the ancient Greeks a very high degree 
of culture if we had received no other knowledge of their civili- 
zation excepting the relics of their works of art, which, when 
attempting to imitate nature, avoid all grotesqueness and 
caricature. 
“In the sculptures of Santa Lucia the human form stands 
before us, not with ill-proportioned features, but in regular outline 
combined with marked expression of the countenance. The 
observance of these details proves a diligent study of the human 
body. That which does appear as grotesque, must not be attrib- 
uted to a crude conception or to want of skill, but to the orna- 
mentation, which has a barbarous luxuriance. If we examine 
the heads in the sculptures of Santa Lucia, we shall find that 
while they all possess the curved nose so characteristic of the abo- 
rigines of America, they have no stereotyped forms; on the con- 
trary, this feature varies with the expression of the face, so as to 
individualize each person represented. Some of the faces are 
attractive on account of the quiet expression of their features; 
and one especially approaches very nearly to our sense of beauty. 
The engraving hardly does justice to the original. ; 
“ Again, just as each art passes through several stages in its pro- 
gress to perfection, so among all arts there is the same gradation. 
Thus lyric and didactic poetry are assigned a lower place than 
epic poetry, and the drama is the most elevated of all. Dramatic 
conception can originate and be cultivated only by a people who 
have passed the other stages. The monoliths of Santa Lucia 
show that their authors had cultivated the poetic sentiment as 
well as sculpture ; for, not only do we find that they had statuary 
as well as low reliefs, but we have evidence of the degree of 
poetical elevation to which they had attained. All of the scenes 
represented are dramatic, and four of them are allegorical. In the 
two sculptures representing sick men, the individuals are doubt- 
less of high standing. One.of them is visited by death in the 
shape of a skeleton, who draws the attention of the sick man to 
the fact of his having lived for a number of years, indicated by 
the signs for numerals, and that it is, therefore, time for him to 
depart. In the other case, the sick man is visited by the medicine 
man in the guise of a deer, and reminded of the moderate numbe 
of years he has lived, as indicated by the numeral signs. This 
news would cheer him with the — of recovery. 
