58 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Jacobo Madrid, one of the most intelligent of the middle-aged villagers 
(born in 1875) is inclined to accept Pio Garin’s story rather than that of 
Maria Melendrez on the grounds that as a child he was a frequent visitor to 
this rancho south of the church, and he believes he would have remembered 
these altars had they been there at that time. Christina Ramirez, the oldest 
inhabitant of the village, has no remembrance of them. 
The recollections of these three old people go back clearly to a time 
when the dense bush, which formerly covered the whole valley-floor, came 
right up to the present village plaza, and when the village itself was still 
only a small cluster of huts, not more than a dozen scattered through the 
forest, with small clearings here and there for each rancho. This was before 
the forest had been felled in the valley by the party of colonists from Guate- 
mala between 1860 and 1870, mentioned in Chapter I. 
Their testimony on this, as well as on other points to be treated later, may 
be accepted as correct. In the present case the story of Pio Garin has been 
followed, being corroborated to a certain extent by that of Jacobo Madrid; 
but it should be noted that the account of Maria Melendrez differs only by 
a few meters and both agree as to the part of the village from which these 
altars originally came. (See figure 22, g and 2.) 
In 1892, when the first church was built, they were removed thither and 
let into the high altar, where they remained for 23 years. (See figure 22, 
h and 7.) The writer first saw them in March 1915, after this building had 
been torn down to make room for the new church then in course of construc- 
tion, at which time the photographs shown in plate 8, f and g were taken. 
On returning to the village a year later, he found that a few weeks previous- 
ly both had been broken into small pieces by a mason from Santa Rosa 
for use in the walls of the new church and no trace of either was to be 
found. 
ALTaR M’, 
Provenance: Original position unknown, probably from just west 
of pyramid at southeast corner of village plaza 
(Group 9). Found built into altar of village church 
when it was torn down in March 1915. Destroyed 
in 1916. (See plate 3 and figure 22, 7 and 7.) 
Date: 9.4.0.0.0 to 9.6.0.0.0 
Text, photograph: plate 8, g. 
Altar M’ is 1.3 meters long, 61 cm. wide, and 29 cm. thick, and appears 
in every way to be the companion piece of Altar L’. The top and front are 
sculptured with the same design as Altar L’, and the top is similarly divided 
by two vertical bands. To the left of the right band is a panel of six glyph- 
blocks arranged in two columns of three glyph-blocks each; and to the right 
is the same grotesque serpent head as in the corresponding position on Altar 
L’, with the same human figure inits mouth. To the left of the vertical band 
at the left, the stone is broken, though traces of a sculptured design appear at 
the edge. The vertical bands on top continue down over the front and divide 
it into three fields; the center has a panel of glyph-blocks, while the right has 
