HIEROGLYPHICS. 
401 
Chap. XXIV,—B.P.] 
The mouth of the Russwass is also on the right 
hank; it is altogether a finer river than the Rama, 
but the narrowness of its mouth gives no indication 
of its somewhat lengthened course. The town of 
Libertad is built on its right bank, near the source, 
at a distance in a straight line from here of not less 
than forty miles. 
The creoles told me marvellous stories about the 
heathen temples on the banks of this river, and the 
colossal image of the favourite god of the aborigines, 
a monkey, mico (hence the Spanish name of the river); 
but on a very close cross-questioning of those who had 
been some way up, the only confirmation I could 
obtain of such stories was that there existed a bare 
rock on which some rude figures had been drawn 
(not cut),—very similar, I suspect, to those which I 
copied from the cliff at Asososca, a small lake, and 
close to Lake Nijapa, 4f miles (by my measurement) 
from Managua, and which consisted of a coiled-up 
lizard, about three feet in diameter, painted in red, and 
another, in black, of a man,—or, rather, skeleton,— 
such as would be drawn by a child of a very tender age. 
I would have given something to have ascended the 
Mico, so as to have set this really important question 
at rest, but time would not allow, and I therefore 
commend the journey to some future explorer, as¬ 
suring him that the trip up the river from Blewfields 
will alone repay him the cost and trouble, and if he 
can find any remains of ruined temples so far south, 
on the Atlantic side, his labours in a scientific point 
of view will not have been in vain. 
2 n 
