ANTIQUITY OF COPAN. 



159 



be infected with superstitious feelings. From constant- 

 ly calling them by that name in our intercourse with the 

 Indians, we regarded these solemn memorials as " idols" 

 — deified kings and heroes — objects of adoration and 

 ceremonial worship. We did not find on either of the 

 monuments or sculptured fragments any delineations of 

 human, or, in fact, any other kind of sacrifice, but had 

 no doubt that the large sculptured stone invariably 

 found before each "idol" was employed as a sacrificial 

 altar. The form of sculpture most frequently met with 

 was a death's head, sometimes the principal ornament, 

 and sometimes only accessory ; whole rows of them on 

 the outer wall, adding gloom to the mystery of the 

 place, keeping before the eyes of the living death and 

 the grave, presenting the idea of a holy city — the Mec- 

 ca or Jerusalem of an unknown people. 



In regard to the age of this desolate city I shall not 

 at present offer any conjecture. Some idea might per- 

 haps be formed from the accumulations of earth and the 

 gigantic trees growing on the top of the ruined struc- 

 tures, but it would be uncertain and unsatisfactory. 

 Nor shall I at this moment offer any conjecture in re- 

 gard to the people who built it, or to the time when or 

 the means by which it was depopulated, and became 

 a desolation and ruin ; whether it fell by the sword, or 

 famine, or pestilence. The trees which shroud it may 

 have sprung from the blood of its slaughtered inhabi- 

 tants ; they may have perished howling with hunger ; 

 or pestilence, like the cholera, may have piled its streets 

 with dead, and driven forever the feeble remnants from 

 their homes ; of which dire calamities to other cities we 

 have authentic accounts, in eras both prior and subse- 

 quent to the discovery of the country by the Span- 

 iards. One thing I believe, that its history is graven 



