-?!ffi!Siii!^ Huntington Free Library Native American Collection MARSHALL H. SAVILLE COLLECTION 3 1924 097 644 037 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924097644037 CENTRAL AMERICAN AND WEST INDIAN ARCHEOLOGY FRONTISPIECE POTTERY FIGURE FROM PANAMA; TALAMANCAN. (Scale a) (Mmeum of .irchcrdagy, Cambridge) CENTRAL AMERICAN AND WEST INDIAN AR^CH OOLOGY BEING" AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE STATES OF NICARAGUA, COSTA RICA, PANAMA AND THE WEST INDIES BY THOMAS A. X^YCE, M.A., WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS & TWO MAPS NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 1916 PREFACE THIS book deals with the archaeology of the Cen- tral States of America, south of Honduras, and of the West Indies, in a manner similar to that in which two former volumes have discussed the archaeology respectively of South America and of Mexico and the Maya districts. It was already approaching completion when the war broke upon Europe, and, though it was finished by the end of the year, circumstances combined to prevent its publication for the time. Having been engaged for the better part of the last year in work more germane to the present crisis than archaeological studies, I have not found the task of proof-correction very easy, especially as the time which I have been able to devote to it has been extremely limited. For any faults proceeding from these dis- advantages I must therefore beg the indulgence of the reader. The geographical area covered by the book is one which is still very imperfectly known from an archae- ological point of view ; the people inhabiting it in early times were not so highly developed, politically, as the Mexicans or the Peruvians, and the literature dealing with them is neither large nor easy of access. Still a summary of the known facts may be of use, if only in performing the function of a signpost for future investigators. I owe much to the many kind friends who have helped me in every direction, and I trust that they will Vlll PREFACE accept this expression of my grateful thanks. Professor G. G. MacCurdy of Yale University, Dr. C. V. Hartman of the Royal Ethnographical Museum, Stockholm, and Dr. J. W. Fewkes of the Bureau of American Ethnology have permitted me _ to copy illustrations which have appeared in their works. Professor W. H. Holmes, Director of the above-men- tioned Bureau, has extended to me a similar courtesy, and has also furnished me with photographs and a drawing of objects preserved in the National Museum, Washington. To Miss Adela Breton I am indebted for permission to reproduce her drawing which appears as Plate V ; to Mr. George G. Heye of New York for like permission with regard to the fine stone " collar " in his collection, shown on Plate XIX ; and to the Rev. T. Huckerby for the interesting photographs appearing as Plate XXVIII. To Baron Anatole von Hiigel of the Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge, I owe permission to make use of the interesting pottery figure which forms an item of the collection over which he presides, and of which Mr. C. J. Praetorius has made so excellent a drawing for the frontispiece. I must thank Sir Hercules Read of the British Museum for much kind advice, and for [^,/the line-drawing which a dorns the ^over. Also Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge for tEemterest he has taken in the book, which is primarily due to his instigation. The Trustees of the British Museum have been kind enough to allow me to reproduce many of the objects pre- served in the national collection ; and the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute has permitted me to make use of the illustrations Plate V and Figs. 46 and 47. To my wife my thanks are due for her assistance in preparing certain of the line-drawings and in the necessary and laborious task of compiling the index. PREFACE ix Finally I wish to express my- gratitude to my pub- lishers for the kind consideration they have consistently shown me, through which the labour involved in the preparation of a general work, such as this, has been appreciably lightened. T. A. JOYCE. London, January, 1916. , CONTENTS PART I SOUTHERN CENTRAL AMERICA CHAPTER PAGE Introduction ...... i I. Nicaragua and N.E. Costa Rica . . 6 II. Nicaragua and N.E. Costa Rica {continued) 31 III. Nicaragua and N.E. Costa Rica (continued) 50 IV. Central Costa Rica 71 V. Southern Costa Rica and Panama . . 90 VI. Southern Costa Rica and Panama {continued) 113 VII. Southern Costa Rica and Panama {continued) 130 PART II THE WEST INDIES Introduction . . . . . • ^53 VIII. The West Indies. Government, Marriage AND War ....... 157 IX. The West Indies, Religion . . .178 X. The West Indies. Amusements, Burial, Food and Habitations .... 203 XI. The West Indies. Dress and Manufactures 228 Appendix 258 Index 265 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE IN COLOURS Talamancan Pottery Figure . (Frontispiece) PLATES IN HALF-TONE FACING PAGE I. Nicaragua : Stone axe, Chontales ; Urn Ometepec ..... n. Nicaragua : Pottery, Ometepec . III. Costa Rica : Stone and pottery stools, Tala- mancan ; Stone Metate, Nicoya IV. Nicaragua : Pottery, Ometepec . V. Costa Rica : Pottery, Nicoya VI. Nicaragua : Stone bowl. Costa Rica : Stone figure ... . . VII. Costa Rica : Stone stools and Metates . VIII. Costa Rica : Guetar pottery IX. Costa Rica : Guetar pottery X. Costa Rica : Guetar pottery XI. Costa Rica : Guetar pottery XII. Costa Rica : Guetar pottery XIII. Costa Rica and Panama : Gold ornaments XIV. Costa Rica : Talamancan pottery XV. Costa Rica and Panama : Talamancan pottery 146 XVI. Jamaica : Wooden idols XVII. Greater Antilles : " Three-pointed stones " XVIII. Greater Antilles : Stone " collars " . 18 44 54 60 64 74 76 78 82 84 86 88 124 136 182 186 XIV ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE XIX. Greater Antilles : Stone " collar " 190 XX. Greater Antilles : Stone pestles . 212 XXI. Greater Antilles : Wooden idol . 218 XXII. Santo Domingo : Wooden seat . 222 XXIII. Greater Antilles : Stone ceremonial celts, figure and axe ..... 230 XXIV. Lesser Antilles : Stone axes 236 XXV. Greater Antilles : Stone rubbers and head . 242 XXVI. Porto Rico : Pottery bowl. 246 XXVII. Greater Antilles : Pottery bowl . 250 CXVIII. . St. Vincent : Petroglyphs .... 254 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 IS 16 17 18 Stone hooks from spear-throwers ; Nicoya . Stone club-heads ; Nicoya .... Stone figure ; Pensacola .... Stone figure ; Zapatera Is. . . . Stone figure ; Zapatera Is. Stone figure ; Zapatera Is. ... Stone figure ; Subtiaba .... Rock carving, Ceiba Is. ; Rock painting, near Managua , . Stone Metates ; Nicoya .... Stone pestle and Stone bark-beater ; Nicoya Stone pendants ; Nicoya .... Pottery fragments ; Ometepec Is. and Zapatera Is Pottery bowl ; Ometepec Is. . Pottery figure ; Ometepec Is. . Pottery bowls ; Guanacaste Designs from Ometepec pottery and Nicoyan vase Designs from vases ; Managua and Nicoya . Guetar graves ; Santiago, Costa Rica . 17 17 50 SI S2 S3 54 5S S7 S8 S9 62 63 64 6S 66 67 74 ILLUSTRATIONS XV 19. Guetar celts ; San Isidro .... 20. Guetar pottery ; Chircot and Las Huacas . 21. Design from a Guetar bowl ; San Isidro 22. Design from the interior of the bowl, Plate XI, 5 23. Guetar vase ; Los Limones, Costa Rica 24. Pottery incense-spoon ; Guetar ; San Isidro 25. The Isthmus of Panama, after a MS. map of about 1570 26. Section of Talamancan grave ; oval type 27. Section of Talamancan grave ; oblong type 28. Stone celts ; Stone pestle . 29. Stone arrow-heads .... 30. Stone stool ..... 31. Types of Talamancan pottery . 32. Types of Talamancan pottery . 33. Relief detail from a Talamancan vase . 34. Talamancan vases .... 35. Talamancan pottery .... 36. Legs of tripod vases ; Talamancan 37. Talamancan vase ; " Lost-Colour " ware 38. Talamancan pottery .... 39. Talamancan vase representing a tapir . 40. " Alligator " designs from Talamancan vases 41. " Alligator " motives from Talamancan pottery 42. Design from Talamancan vase . 43. Fine Talamancan vase ; " Lost-Colour " ware 44. Pottery whistles ; Talamancan . 45. Map of Santo Domingo at the time of the Dis- covery ...... 46. Schematic drawing of a stone " collar," slender typ 47. Stone " collar," massive type 48. Designs from stone " collars " . 49. " Elbow-stone " ; Porto Rico 50. Cotton Zemi ; Santo Domingo . 79 83 85 86 87 95 107 108 131 132 132 135 136 137 137 138 139 140 142 143 HS 146 146 H7 148 163 187 188 190 191 192 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE 51. Stone figurine . . . . • 52. Types of native dwellings and native canoe ; Domingo . . 53. Stone seat ; Porto Rico 54. Wooden seat ; Santo Domingo or Porto Rico 55. Stone celts ; Jamaica 56. Stone axe-blade ; St. Kitts 57. Stone and shell implements 58. Stone Metate ; found in Jamaica 59. Pottery bowls ; Jamaica . 60. Pottery fragments ; Jamaica 61. Pottery fragments ; Santo Domingo . 62. Pottery fragments ; Santo Domingo . 63. Pottery fragments ; Trinidad 64. Pottery fragments .... Santo PAGE 220 223 224 237 239 241 247 248 249 250 252 253 MAPS I. Linguistic Map of Southern Central America to face 'page 30 II. Southern Central America and the Antilles folder at eni Central American Archaeology PART I SOUTHERN CENTRAL AMERICA INTRODUCTION THE subject of this book is twofold ; the first sec- tion deals with the life and customs of the inhabi- tants of the modern countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, as they were before they came in contact with the white man, and with the archaeological remains which are found throughout their territory ; the second treats in a similar fashion of the ethnology and archae- ology of the West Indian Islands. From a strictly historical point of view, the order of precedence might be inverted, since the Islands were discovered by Columbus on his first voyage, while he did not touch at the Isthmus until his fourth journey. As a matter of convenience, however, the order adopted is the better, for the following reason. In two former volumes I have dealt first with the archaeology of the Mexican and Mayan peoples to the north of the region now to be considered,^ and second with that of the inhabitants of the Southern Continent. ^ Just as this volume forms a connecting link between the other two, so we shall find that, as we pass down the Isthmus from north to south, there is a regular transition from the ^ Mexican Archaeology. ^ South American Archaeology. B 2 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY culture of Mexico and Guatemala to that of Colombia and Peru. The southward pressure of the Nahuatl tribes, which I have described in the first of the two above-mentioned volumes, affected Nicaragua deeply, Costa Rica slightly, and its influence can be traced even in Panama, as far south as the Chiriqui Lagoon. Southern influence appears to have been for the most part recessive rather than progressive. That is to say the general ethnography of Panama and Costa Rica seems to have been originally of a character more nearly related to that of South America than to that of Mexico and Guatemala, but we can recognize no active in- fluence exerted upon the tribes of this region by those of Colombia and Venezuela except in eastern Panama. In the West Indies the case is different. Here there is practically no trace whatever of contact with Mexico or Central America, but, on the other hand, very definite evidence of two successive waves of immigra- tion from South America. The first of these waves gave the islands a population of South Americans be- longing to a widely extended people known as Arawak, while the second colonized the Lesser Antilles with immigrants of an even more widespread stock, the Carib. Wherever found, these two peoples, Arawak and Carib, are mutually antagonistic, and, at the time of the discovery, the only Arawak remaining in the Lesser Antilles were women who had been enslaved by the later comers. Thus in the first section we commence with a region where Mexican influence is strong, and pass gradually to districts where South American ethnography is para- mount. In the second we examine an area which is indirectly related to the southern and eastern portions of the Isthmus, in so far as a common South American element is present in the ethnography of both. At the same time, owing to insular life, the original culture of the Arawak and Carib had become rather specialized. INTRODUCTION 3 This is in particular true of the Arawak, who had evi- dently been settled in the islands for a considerable period before the arrival of their_ hereditary foes. First as regards Nicaragua and the Isthmian region. The physical geography consists in the main of a moun- tainous " back-bone," often, in the more northerly portion, enclosing table-lands, and fringed on either side by a strip of coast, that on the Pacific side being the narrower until Panama is reached, where the con- ditions are reversed. There appears to be a ten- dency for the land to rise upon the Pacific slope, and to sink on the Atlantic side, and there is evidence that much ground has been lost to the ocean on the east. At the same time the elevation of the Isthmus is comparatively recent, to speak in terms of geological time, and the mountains at one period probably formed a chain of islands similar to the Antilles. The line of the Rio San Juan, which flows from Lake Nicaragua to the Atlantic, is usually taken as the physical boundary between North and South America, though not on very good grounds. Southern influences certainly reach further to the north, while the flora characteristic of the north persists locally as far south as Costa Rica. In fact no line can be drawn across the Isthmus to mark any definite contrast existing on either side of it ; the contrast which does exist lies between the two coasts, Atlantic and Pacific. The cause of this is the central mountain range, which robs the moist easterly winds of a great part of their humidity, so that, whereas the rainfall on the Atlantic slope is both constant and ex- cessive, the Pacific slope has a definite dry and rainy season. The dryest and healthiest regions are those sheltered by high ranges from both Oceans. The difference between the two coasts is of course reflected in the vegetation, the character of which is, moreover, dependent upon elevation. The Atlantic watershed, to speak in general terms, is for the most part covered 4 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY with dense forest, enclosing small settlements on the rivers, and traversed by narrow footpaths along which passes a restricted trade parallel with the coast and inland over the mountains. In fact as means of com- munication the streams are almost more important than the forest tracks. On the Pacific slope are found woods, park-land, bush-steppes, and savannahs, while thick forest is confined to the beds of streams. In Nicaragua there are three more or less definite zones of country, consisting firstly of the coast between the highlands and the Pacific, which is mainly of igneous formation, secondly of the uplands of the in- terior, and thirdly of the Mosquito coast, which is partly coralline and partly alluvial. The last-named is an exception to the statement made above concerning the Atlantic coast, since it appears to be gaining on the sea. A feature of Nicaraguan geography is the lacus- trine system in the west, extending for 300 miles, and consisting of the two lakes Managua and Nicaragua, which are not more than 140 feet above the sea-level. These lakes at one time formed arms of the Pacific, and marine forms are still found in them, but at the present time Lake Nicaragua drains into the Atlantic, like most of the Nicaraguan region. The lakes contain several islands of volcanic origin, the most important being that formed of the twin w.'X' cones of Ometepec and Madefa, the former rising 5000 feet above the level of Lake Nicaragua. The up- lands of this country enjoy a relatively mild climate, but the others are tropical. Each zone is distinguished by different vegetation, the most important of the flora being pitch-pine, mahogany and rubber. In the east the fauna include beasts of prey such as the jaguar, puma and ocelot. In Costa Rica the main range turns rather more to the south and branches so as to enclose the elevated table-lands of San Jose and Cartago, forming a rugged INTRODUCTION 5 central region 3000 to 4000 feet high. The volcanic character of the high country is maintained, and indeed extends into Panama. On either side of the uplands we have the two coastal regions, the Atlantic forests and the Pacific savannahs. In Panama the same main characteristics persist, especially as regards the difference between the two coasts, though the lower latitude brings with it a greater exuberance of vegetation, especially as the South American continent is approached. With these few words of introduction we may now proceed to consider the life and customs of the natives such as they were when Columbus first coasted down the Mosquito shore and Vasco Nunez de Balboa first descried the waters of the Pacific " on a peak in Darien." CHAPTER I NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA THE first group of tribes which falls under con- sideration is that which composed the population of what is practically the modern state of Nicaragua, together with the peninsula of Nicoya, and the coast opposite, now belonging to Costa Rica. Of this area, the comparatively small portion which drains into the Pacific Ocean is by far the more important culturally, and more extensively explored than the rest ; the archaeology of the interior and of the eastern side is still very imperfectly known, while the literature deal- ing with its inhabitants is very scanty and defective. Even in the west a great deal remains to be done in the way of excavation and classification of remains ; in fact at present, owing to the gaps in our archaeological knowledge of the whole area, the only satisfactory method of grouping the various tribes composing the population is provided by the study of their languages, which has advanced further than that of their early culture. The following classification therefore is based upon the researches of philologists, but it corresponds very conveniently with the cultural evidence provided by early chroniclers and later archaeologists. ^ The two most important peoples on the west were the Chorotega and the Nicarao or Niquiran. Of these the former, at the time of the Conquest, inhabited the western region from the Bay of Fonseca to the southern- most point of the Nicoyan peninsula, as well as a narrow 1 See the Appendix to this chapter, p. 28, and Map i, p. 30. NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 7 strip of the Costa Rican coast opposite the latter, with the exception of a small region around Leon, and a piece of territory between Lake Nicaragua and the sea. They were thus broken into four sections, known as Mangue to the north of the Plain of Leon, Dirian to the south of the latter, Nicoyan on the peninsula of that name, and Orotinan on the opposite coast. A small isolated branch of this Chorotegan tongue is found as far north as Chiapas, representing probably an early extension of this people in that direction, after- wards cut off and isolated by the numerous tribal movements which have made the reconstruction of ancient American culture a matter of such difficulty. The first break in the line of Chorotega, proceeding from north to south, occurs, as said above, in the region of the Plain of Leon. Here the Subtiaba tongue was current, a dialect which it has been impossible as yet to relate to any other. The second break, to the west of Lake Nicaragua, brings us in contact with an immigrant body of that stock which played so important a part in Mexico during the years immediately preceding the discovery. Here lived the Nicarao or Niquiran, speak- ing a Nahuatl language which to all intents and pur- poses was identical with that of the Aztec. Nor was this point the furthest south of that indefatigable stock of wanderers ; enclaves of them were present in Bugaces, Nicoya, and even in the Telorio Valley at the western end of the Chiriqui Lagoon, where a colony was discovered by Juan Vasquez de Coronado in 1564. The Nicarao preserved the tradition of their immi- gration, stating that they came from the west (i.e. north-west) from a country called Ticomega Emagua- tega ; Torquemada alleges that previous to their arrival they lived in Soconusco, and it may be con- cluded that they were an early wave of that great tribal movement from north to south which broke up the " Toltec " power in the Mexican Valley, and of which 8 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY the Aztec were the rearguard. With them they brought the typical Mexican calendar and religion, together with the practice of human sacrifice by tearing out the heart of the victim. This would bring them to their new home by Lake Nicaragua somewhere in the eleventh century a.d.^ At the time of the Conquest, the Nicarao domain extended to the islands in the lake, but there is archaeological evidence to show that these islands had previously been inhabited "by Chorotega. South of Lake Nicaragua, between the Nicoyan penin - sula and the river San Juan, were the Corobici, a people about whom practically nothing is known, but who had attained a considerably higher culture than might be expected from the present condition of their descendants, the wild and primitive Guatuso. North of the San Juan, as far as a line drawn, approximately, from Monkey Point westwards to the lake, were the (linguistically) kindred Rama, also a tribe of primitive habits. The inhabitants of the rest of Nicaragua, by far the larger portion geographically speaking, though never so thickly populated, may be grouped under the term Sumo-Mosquito. These speakers of related dialects may further be divided into four ; the Matagalpa to the west of the Mangue and Dirian, the Sumo their eastern neighbours, the Ulua between the last and the Rama, and the Mosquito fringing the eastern coast from Cape Gracias a Dios to Monkey Point. As remarked above, little is known of the tribes of this area from any source, though an interesting migration story has been preserved concerning the Mosquito. According to this legend the Mosquito were originally called Kiribi and inhabited the depart- ment of Rivas, later occupied by the Nicarao. Late in the tenth century they were invaded by a tribe of immi- grants from the north, and eventually, after a long 1 The question of the migrations of the Aztec and kindred tribes, and their date, is discussed in full in my Mexican Archaeology. NICARAGUA AND N.K CoSTA RICA 9 struggle, were compelled to leave their old home,which was occupied by their supplanters, no doubt the Nicarao. They retreated to the other side of the lake, the present department of Chontales, where they re- sided for more than a century. Later, still under pressure, this time probably exercised by the Sumo, they migrated to the coast. Their leader was a man named Wakna, whose son, Lakia Tara, became their ruler, and conquered the whole coast from Honduras to Costa Rica. The tradition is interesting, and sup- ported to some extent by archaeology, since certain objects discovered in Chontales (notably stone axes of the type figured on PI. I, Fig. i) have their parallels in the Mosquito region, while the name Kiribi suggests a connection with the Corobici. A further tradition relates that about the twelfth century a cannibal people, called Vivises, of unknown origin, settled on the coast, and to them are attributed certain tumuli. The visitors eventually departed, but no man knows whither. As far as history is concerned, the Mosquito have shown a tendency to expand towards the interior, subduing several Sumo and Rama tribes, the former until recently paying a tribute in the shape of cedar dug-out canoes. The connection of the Mosquito with the Sumo, however, apart from linguistic evidence, is enforced by a tradition current among the latter people. They trace their origin to a certain rock situated west of the Caratasca (Cartago) lagoon, between the Patook and Coco (Wanks) rivers. This rock is said to bear the mark of an umbilical cord, and here the tribal ancestors were born, a " Great Father," Maisa Kana, and a " Great Mother," Ituana. The latter is identified with the '" Mother Scorpion," Itoki, of the Mosquito. The Sumo and Mosquito were descended from these primal ancestors, who cared for their children and gave instruction to them. But the Mosquito were dis- obedient, and ran away to the coast. After this, other lo CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY tribes, the Tuacha and Yusco, were born, o£ which, the latter turned to evil ways and were conquered by the Sumo ; they now live around the headwaters of the Coco. Finally were born the Ulua, who so profited by the instruction of the tribal ancestors that they became especially skilled in medicine and song, and won the name of Boa, " Singers." Meanwhile the Sumo lived on the rivers and in the bush ; they were wild and un- kempt, their hair fell to their knees, and they were full of lice. Finally the ruler of the Mosquito sent and captured them, had them washed and altogether re- generated them, so that he won their love and obtained their support. Apart from the interest of this legend it possesses also the advantage of having no moral. As regards the more civilized peoples of this area, the Chorotega had been deeply influenced by the Nicarao. In fact Oviedo states that the religion of the two was identical, and, as will be seen, the religion which he describes is in essentials that of Mexico. It would be unreasonable to suppose that the influence had not extended further, and indeed it is not easy to make a sharp distinction between the customs of the two peoples. The difiiculty is increased by the fact that Oviedo, our principal informant, is often very vague himself as regards which of the two he is discussing. Two forms of government prevailed in the west ; the inhabitants were divided into communities, some of which were under absolute chiefs termed by the early chroniclers Caciques a title which they had found current in the Antilles, while others lived under a re- publican form of government. From what we know of the primitive Nahuatl tribes, it is reasonable to con- jecture that the latter form of constitution was on the whole characteristic of the Nicarao. At the same time, just as among the Aztec, the change from a wandering to a settled life led to the supersession of the old tribal council by a single ruler. Under the older constitution. NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA ii to speak generally, the countil in cases of emergency would appoint a chief executive officer, whose power lasted for a definite period or as long as the particular emergency endured. There were special reasons why in Mexico a post of this nature tended to crystallize into a permanency, but apart from this the tendency is in itself natural. At any rate we know for certain that at Nicaragua (Rivas), in the heart of the Nicarao domain, there was a Cacique of that name. In the Chorotegan region we know the names of more. Where the council alone was supreme, and I am inclined to believe that this relates chiefly, if not entirely, to the Nicarao, the members were elective, holding office for four moons, and probably representing the families or clans composing the community. The latter suppo- sition is supported by the statement that they " pos- sessed " villages and vassals, which probably means that they were supported by the clan which they repre- sented. The councillors were called Huehue (a Mexican word meaning " Elders "), and appointed various executive officers, two of whom in rotation exercised a continual supervision of the market (similar officials existed in Mexico), while others were charged with some special duty demanded by immediate cir- cumstances, such as the preparations for a warlike ex- pedition, or the levy of a tax. The council was jealous of its authority, and would put to death an official who was suspected to be aiming at supreme power, and this fate occasionally befell those appointed to military commands. The council too was the guardian of the registers of property, which were similar to those of the Mexicans, and this fact again suggests that such a con- stitution was proper to the Nicarao, since no other people possessed a form of writing.^ Some of the 1 Strangely enough Herrera states that the Chorotega alone had manuscripts, but it is evident that he has confused the two peoples. Unfortunately no examples of Nicaraguan writing have survived. 12 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY Caciques, especially those of the Chorotega, such as Agateite and Nicoya, seem to have exercised a more or less absolute power, the extent of which no doubt de- pended upon individual character. A chief of this kind was supported by a council formed by the heads of clans, who were called Galfones ; the offices both of Cacique and Galpones were probably hereditary, though in some cases the system of an elective council seems to have existed parallel with that of a supreme chief. Such an organization probably represents a com- promise between' the Chorotegan and Niquiran forms of government. An officer appointed by a Cacique for a particular duty, or one of his messengers, carried in token of his office a fly-switch, or in some places a rattle- staff, which he returned to his master when his task was performed ; but in general the authority of a chief ex- tended only to public matters, no personal service was owed him, and for such purposes he employed his private staff of slaves. The legend collected among the Mosquito and re- lated above bears witness to the former existence of a chieftainship among that people. But it seems to have arisen from the fact that the leader in the tribal move- ment retained his power after the migration was con- cluded and transferred it to his son. At any rate the office was not long-lived. Even before the death of Wakna, so we are told, dissensions arose, which became aggravated in the " reign " of Lakia Tara. After him the office probably disappeared, and at a later date (1699) we are told that the Mosquito have no actual chief, but only temporary leaders in war. This state- ment is no doubt true in the sense that there was no great chief exercising power over a wide extent of coun- try, but from other accounts it may be concluded that there were* local chieftains who presided over small groups of the population. At any rate, in the time of Columbus, the country north of the San Juan river is NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 15 described as being in the hands of a number of rulers. In some places these " kings " bore the title of Cacique, elsewhere of Quebi or Tiba, while " valiant men " were called Cufra, and commoners Chivi. Of the customary laws hj which these tribes were governed, practically nothing is known save of the Nicarao, whose code was built up on lines similar to that of the Mexicans. Murder was punished with death, while involuntary homicide involved payment of heavy compensation, consisting of a slave or a quantity of cotton textiles. As in Mexico, the shearing of the culprit's hair was regarded as a severe punish- ment ; this treatment was usually accorded to thieves, and the criminal became the slave of the victim until such time as he made restitution, and if restitution was long delayed, he ran the risk of being sacrificed. In matrimonial cases, the male culprit received a severe beating, while the woman was divorced by her husband and might not re-marry ; the children remained with the husband. Divorce brought with it deep disgrace, jiot only upon the woman, but upon her parents also. For rape, the offender was enslaved, unless he paid the marriage-price for his victim, while if a slave tampered with the virtue of his master's daughter, both were buried alive. Slavery of a modified sort existed, as in Mexico, in so far that people in dire poverty might pawn their children, or themselves, such pawns being redeemable at any time on repayment of the goods provided. As, regards marriage, Oviedo states that only one legitimate wife was permitted to any except Caciques. Bigamy was punished by banishment and confiscation of property, the latter being given to the injured partner, who might re-marry. The same author states that marriage was prohibited only within the first degree of relationship. The union was arranged between the fathers of the parties, who presented the 14 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY couple with a " dowry," consisting of fruit-trees and ■ other property ; turkeys and dogs were killed and cacao provided for a feast, after which the priest took the bride and bridegroom by the little fingers of their left hands and conducted them to a small hut in which a fire was burning. There after a short homily he left them, and when the fire burnt out the marriage might be consummated. If the bride were found to be no virgin she might be repudiated. Should the couple die without issue the landed property given them at their marriage lapsed to their respective families. This regulation implies that the land was divided among the various clans, the portion allotted to each clan being subdivided among its members according to their respective needs. This system vvas practised in Mexico. Property other than land was inherited by the sons of the legitimate wife, who were born in the house. The latter privilege was not allowed to the children of concubines, who were forced to go elsewhere when their time approached, nor could the former claim any, share in their father's possessions. In cases where a man died without children, his personal property was buried with him. The social system among the Chorotega is obscure. In some respects women took a higher place among them than among the Nicarao. The Nicarao women, so we are told, were submissive, but the Chorotegan wives kept their husbands in good order, and it was not an unheard-of thing for a man to be turned out of doors by his angry spouse and be forced to beg his neighbours to intercede on his behalf. It was con- sidered the husband's duty, moreover, to sweep the hut and light the fire before leaving in the morning to hunt or cultivate. To the Chorotega rather than the Nicarao must be attributed the custom mentioned, by Oviedo, that in cases of poverty a girl would collect NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 15 her " dowry " by means of prostitution ; when suffi- cient property had been amassed by this means, a house was built by her lovers in which a feast was held. At the end of the proceedings the girl selected one of the number as her husband, and, adds the author, it was not uncommon for one or more of the rejected to commit suicide by hanging. The same authority states that in the case of a normal marriage the chief priest possessed a right over the bride which he might exer- cise on the night preceding the ceremony. As regards the Mosquito, the author who wrote under the initials M.W. in 1699 states that a system of trial marriage existed among them. The probationary period lasted about two years, at the end of which the " husband " gave the woman's father a present, and the two prepared a feast, after which the union was considered legitimate. A plurality of wives was allowed, but was not common. In later times the custom seems to have been for a young man to select a girl under marriageable age and take up his abode with her family, assisting in all their daily work. When sh^ arrived at puberty he would take her as wife with- out further ceremony. This may be a modification of the former practice, or the early author may have mistaken the actual facts. At any rate the system vfas not a bad one, since the two grew to know each other thoroughly, and it is stated that matrimonial squabbles were rare among this people. In some cases, however, a couple would simply set up house together. The Mosquito women seem to have been true companions to their husbands, sharing in their work in the planta- tions and paddling with them in their canoes ; in fact, the only sphere in which they did not assist was that of war. Among the Nicarao, war was not quite of the same ceremonial character as among the Mexicans, but still the ceremonial side was not entirely lacking, in so far 1 6 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY as the capture o£ prisoners for sacrifice was a very important item, though territorial disputes provided the chief cause of hostilities. The forces were led by a " general " elected by the army, and, if he fell in the fight, another w^as immediately appointed by the Cacique, if present, otherwise a rout usually resulted. Warriors desirous of obtaining distinction would often engage in single combat with one of the enemy, and, if victorious, received the title of Tafaliqui and were permitted to shave the head, leaving a little crown of hair on the top, about an inch long, with a longer tuft in the middle. This form of hair-dressing recalls the usual lock worn by Aztec warriors who had captured a prisoner. Captives were sacrificed after a victory in Mexican fashion on an altar in front of a shrine ; but if no prisoners had been taken, the leaders assembled round the altar weeping. The weapons consisted of bows and arrows, spears, clubs, and the regular Mexican " sword," with heavy wooden blade, the edges of which were set with flakes of stone. Shields of bark or light wood were carried, covered with feather ornamentation or cotton textile, and cuirasses and thigh-pieceS" of quilted cotton served to give protection to the body. There was no regular distribution of booty, but each man kept what he himself had seized. Prisoners, if not sacrificed, were branded and had a front tooth extracted. The Chorotega were good archers, and used arrows (furnished with stone heads or fish-spine points), spears and clubs. The women often accompanied their hus- bands to the fight and were adept in the use of the bow. It is probable that javelins, hurled by means of a wooden spear-thrower terminating in a hook, were em- ployed by the Chorotega, at least in Nicoya, since a number of the stone hooks, rather similar to those of Ecuador, have been found there (Fig. i). Possibly, too, many of the clubs were furnished~witE stone heads NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 17 unless these of various shapes, as shown in Fig. 2, objects were for ceremonial use. Bows, spears and clubs seem to have been universal all over the Sumo-Mosquito territory and also in the Fig. I. — Stone hooks from spear-throwers ; Nicoya. Carnegie Museum. After Hartman. Scale \. Fig. 2. — Stone club-heads ; Nicoya. a &nA e. National Museum, Costa Rica ; c and d, Carnegie Museum. After Hartman. Scale \. Rama country, where they were found by Columbus at Cariari, or Canny, at the mouth of the San Juan, the spears being tipped with fish-spines. The Mosquito appear to have made periodical raids upon the tribes 1 8 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY further inland, and the latter retaliated in kind when opportunity offered. Stone axes, cut from the solid, with single or double blade, have been found in the department of Chontales, and it is possible that these were weapons of war, though their significance may have been only ceremonial. The double pattern, as shown in PL I, has been discovered in the Mosquito region also. None of these tribes applied poison to their arrows. The religion of the Nicarao was in all essentials similar to that of the Aztec, though the ritual was not so elaborate, and the beliefs had become, somewhat corrupted during their migration. They believed that the earth and mankind had been created by two beings, a male, Tamagostad, and a female, Cipaltonal ; these were the two chief gods, and war had been invented to provide them with sustenance, for they lived on blood and hearts, and the smoke of incense. These two are evidently the same as the Mexican Oxomoco and Cipactonal, the supernatural pair who assisted at the creation and taught men magic, though in Mexico no offerings were made to them. They are represented by the Nicarao as living either in the east or in the sky, and it was believed that the souls of those dying in war went to them. Other gods were Miquetanteot, lord of the underworld (the Mexican Mictlantecutli), and Quiateot, the god of rain (in Mexico the word for rain was quiauitt). Quiateot was master of thunder and lightning also, and young boys and girls were sacrificed to him in order that he might give rain for the crops, just as in Mexico infants were sacrificed to Tlaloc, the rain-god of the valley, for the same purpose. Mixcoa (Mixcoatl), the old hunting-god of the Aztec, in Nicaragua had become the god of trade, and traders offered him their own blood, drawing it from their tongues, in order to obtain luck in buying or selling. The practice of the worshipper making an offering of PLATE I NICARAGUA 1. Stone axe 2. Burial-urn ; Ometepec Island (Scale; i, 2/7ths ; 2, i/6th NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 19 his own blood was, of course, common throughout both the Mexican and the Mayan areas. As parents of the god Quiateot, two divinities are mentioned, Home- Atelite and Home-Ateciaguat. These are probably the counterparts of the two otiose sky- and creating- divinities known in Mexico as Ometecutli and Ome- ciuatl respectively. Another god, Ciagat, represented as assisting in the creation, must be the same as Ce Acatl, a calendrical name of the god Quetzalcoatl, who among the Mexicans was also a creator-god and lord of the calendar. Again, Oviedo states that the god of the winds was called " Chiquinau or Hecat," which must be a misrepresentation of the Mexican Chiquinaui Eecatl, a date sacred to the Mexican wind-god, which might well therefore be employed as his calendrical name. Another god was named Vizteot, and was re- garded as the god of hunger. He is rather difficult to' identify, but since one of the Mexican names for octli (the drink manufactured from the sap of the agave) was uiiztli, he may have been one of the deities, of which there were a large number, presiding over this beverage in Mexico. As the Nicarao were unable to procure octli in their new home the deity might well become associated with hunger. Further, reverence was paid to a hunting-god, in whose honour when a deer was flayed the dried blood was collected and sus- pended in a basket in the hut. Besides these, Oviedo gives the names of twenty gods presiding over feasts. These are, in fact, the names of the twenty day-signs of the Mexican ritual calendar or tonalamatl, and he further states that the year was divided into periods of 20 days ; so it may be concluded that the Mexican calendrical system was in force among the Nicarao.^ The temples were built of timber and thatched, humble edifices compared with those of Mexico, and ^ For the Mexican calendar and the gods mentioned, I must refer the reader to Mexican Archaeology, Chapters II and III, 20 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY contained many dark inner chambers. Near them were the sacrificial mounds, low pyramids supporting a sacrificial stone which was reached by a flight of steps. We are told that the temples were called Ochilobos, the form under which the name of the Aztec tribal god Uitzilopochtli was known to the early chroniclers. The sacrificial ceremony resembled that of Mexico, the victim was stretched on the stone and the priest, Tamagoz (Aztec, Tlamacazqut), slashed open his breast with a stone knife and tore out his heart, anointing the lips of the image with the blood. As in Mexico, cannibalism was an accompaniment of human sacrifice. The head of the victim was cut off, and the body dismembered and cooked in big pots with salt and pepper, being eaten subsequently with maize bread and cacao. The head was added to the pile in front of the temple (corresponding to the tzompantli in Mexico). A special programme was observed in the distribution of the flesh ; the hearts were allotted to the priests, the thighs to the nobles, and the rest to the people. In ordinary cases the victims were slaves, prisoners and strangers, but in one ceremony a free-born youth was sacriflced. The ceremony in question corresponded to the oft-quoted Aztec festival in honour of Tezcat- lipoca, in which the victim, regarded as the representa- tive of the god himself, after a year spent in all the luxury that Mexican civilization could afford, was offered up upon the sacrificial stone. In Nicaragua the victim was destined to this fate fronti youth, was treated with great respect and even allowed to appro- priate any property to which he took a fancy. It was believed that after death he became a " god or heavenly creature," and his body was not eaten, the feet, hands and entrails being buried in a gourd in front of the. temple, the rest, including the heart, being burnt near certain trees in the neighbourhood. Besides the offering to Mixcoa mentioned above, ceremonial NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 21 blood-letting was practised in common. Peter Martyr describes one of these occasions, on which, the Cacique, nobles and priests all assisted. A translation of Peter Martyr's Decades was made in 1612, by " M. Lok, Gent.," and the translator's English is so delightfully quaint that I make no apology for quoting his words in full : " The Kings, Priests, & Nobles sacrifice to one IdoU onely with their owne bloud. This idol fastened to the toppe of a speare of three cubites long, the elder sorte authorized thereunto with great pompe in the face of heaven (carry) out of the Temple, where it is religiously kept all the yeere : & it is like the infernall goddes, after the same manner that is paynted upon the walles to terrifie men. The mytred Priestes goe before, & a multitude of people following after carry every one their banners of woven cotton, painted with a thousande colours, with the images & representa- tions of their divels. From the Priestes shoulders, covered with divers linnen clothes, certaine belts, more than a finger thicke, hang downe unto the ancles, at the fringed endes whereof several purses are annexed, wherein they carry sharpe rasors of stone, & little bagges of powders made of certayne dryed hearbes. The king & his Nobles follow the Priestes behinde in their order, & after them the confused multitude of the people to a man ; none that can stand on his feete may bee absent from these ceremonies. Being come unto the appoynted place, first strawing sweete smelling hearbes, or spreading sheets or coverlettes of divers colours under them, that the speare may not touch the ground, they make a stand, & the priests supporting the same, they salute their litle divel with their accustomed songes & hymmes : the young men leape about it, tripping & dancing with a thousande kinds of antique sports, vaunting their agility & nimble- ness of body by the shaking of their weapons & targets. The priestes making a sign unto them, every one 22 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY taketh his rasor, & turning their eyes unto the IdoU, they gash & wound their owne tongues, some thrust them through, & the most part cut them so that the bloud issueth forth in great abundance, all of them (as we sayd in the former sacrifices) rubbe the lippes & beard of that foolish idol ; then presently applying the powder of that hearbe, they fill their woundes. They say the vertue of that powder is such that within a fewe houres their ulcers are cured, so that they seeme never to have beene cutte." A peculiar ceremony was practised in order to obtain prosperity for the community. An important Cacique would enter a temple and remain in the precincts a whole year, offering prayers for the general well-being. At the end of the period of seclusion his reappearance in public was made the occasion of a great festival, at which his nose was pierced, a sign of great honour, and his place was taken by another Cacique. Individuals of lower rank might enter the less important temples for a similar purpose and time, provided that they were unmarried or had separated themselves from their wives for 'a year. In fact, the influence of women was considered to involve ceremonial impurity, since they were not allowed within the precincts of a shrine, and even the bodies of female sacrifices were never brought into temple premises. Many of the rites were performed in connection with agriculture, and we are told that at the gathering of each kind of crop a ceremony was held in honour of the presiding deity. Though human sacrifice naturally is given great prominence in the pages of the early writers, jio doubt it was not nearly so prevalent as in Mexico ; far more common were offerings of birds, fish and maize. Just as among the Aztec, the practice of confession existed among the Nicarao ; a man whose conscience was troubled by some sin, such as the profanation NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 23 of a festival, blasphemy and so forth, made confession to an " aged man," probably a special grade of priest, who imposed some penance ; for instance, the penitent was ordered to provide so much wood for the temple fires, or to sweep the temple precincts for so many days. As in Mexico, absolution could only be given once for a particular sin. The Confessors wore a gourd suspended round their necks in token of their office, they were celibate, lived in their own houses, and were nominated by general consent. The ordinary priests were usually married. The Nicarao believed that every individual had a soul, called Julio, which issued at death from the mouth of the possessor, and departed either to the .abode of Tamagostad and Cipaltonal or to the realm of Miquetanteot in the underworld. The former and better fate was reserved for those who had been slain in battle or whose lives had been of particular merit, while the latter was the lot of those who died inglori- ously at home. The souls of children dying before they had been weaned, or had tasted maize, were, it was believed, destined to be born again and in the same household. It is interesting to find here, as in so many other parts of America, a deluge tradition. Details are lacking, but it was thought that at some remote period the world had been totally destroyed by a great flood. Belief in the evil eye was prevalent, and this malign influence was especially feared on behalf of children. An interesting minor superstitious practice, which again has parallels elsewhere, notably in Peru, was the following : A traveller on a journey would pluck a handful of grass, or pick up a stone, and cast it by the wayside, believing that thereby he would escape fatigue and hunger. As regards the Chorotega, Oviedo states definitely that their religion was similar to that of the Nicarao. No doubt they had been greatly influenced by the 24 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY latter and had adopted many of their reHgious prac- tices, notably human sacrifice with its attendant ceremonial cannibalism. From other authors a few additional details are gathered. There were a number of gods, presiding over water, battle, maize and other agricultural products, the produce-deities being appa- rently of particular importance. Oviedo himself describes a ceremony which took place at the cacao harvest in the village Tecoatega of the chief Agateite. In the centre of the space opposite the temple was a pole fixed in the ground, supporting the image of the cacao-god, Cacaguat, adorned with paint. Round this a company of some sixty men, with a number of women and children, performed a ceremonial dance, two and two. The men were nude, but painted " so as to, appear clothed," and wore great feather diadems on their heads. The painting was supplemented with tufts of coloured cotton, cut small like down (in Mexico down itself was employed), and some of the performers wore masks. The dance-ground was marked off by four posts, between which cords were stretched. The same author also describes a festival, again apparently connected with agriculture, which took place three times a year on fixed dates in Nicoya. The head Cacique, his subordinate and most of the people, both men and women", painted themselves and assumed feather crests, the women wearing new sandals. Two circles were formed, one within the other, around the altar in front of the " pyramid " ; the men forming the outer ring, the women the inner. Holding hands they danced round, the women imitating the movements of the man, while within the circles were men who gave drink to the dancers. After the dance several women were sacrificed, one after the other, their heads being cut off. The women present, with a great cry, fied to the woods, and were chased by the men and brought back. On the same or the next NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 25 day sheaves of maize were arranged round the altar, and the men gashed their tongues and other portions of their body, letting the blood fall upon the maize, which was then divided among those present. The object of the ceremony was evidently the . promotion of fertility for the maize crop, and the maize which was sprinkled with the worshippers' blood was probably reserved for sowing. The fact that the victims were decapitated is interesting, since in Mexico the sacrifices oflFered to the fertility goddesses were kiUed by this method, which seems to have typified the reaping of the maize-ear. The Chorotegan idols were made of clay and wood, also of stone, to judge from certain of the remains, and occasionally of gold. None of the latter have survived, though the Cacique Nicoya gave Gil Gonzalez six golden images, each a span long, " which were ancestral gods." The close connection of religion with agriculture among the Chorotega is emphasized by the fact that the sowing of maize might only be performed by a person in a state of ceremonial purity, a condition which could only be attained by abstinence from women, salt and intoxicating liquor. The worship of volcanoes, or rather of a volcano, is also found. Pascual de Andagoya states that human offerings were made to a volcano three leagues from Granada (probably that of Masaya), a virgin being cast into the crater from time to time. The statement of Oviedo, quoting Fr. Bias del Castillo, probably refers to the same fact, viz. that the Cacique of a village named Lenderi claimed often to have climbed with certain of his retainers to the crater, and there held converse with a naked old woman who issued from it and who uttered prophecies concerning the result of wars, prospects of rain, and the success of the harvest. Human sacrifices were offered to her on the day before or after consultation, and many fragments of the pots containing offerings of food and drink left by the 26 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY faithful were to be seen on the crater side. It is even stated that individuals would offer themselves as sacrifices. In the Plain of Leon, Andagova writes of a golden image attended by a chief priest who lived in the temple, and he states that this figure was anointed with the blood of the hearts of male and female victims as well as that drawn from the tongues of the wor- shippers. We hear too of an incident occurring in this locality which seems to suggest another Mexican practice. At a village five leagues from Leon the Spaniards met with armed resistance on the part of the inhabitants, who came out in force against them, led by certain individuals clad in the skins of aged men and women newly sacrificed. The chronicler explains this peculiar form of dress as a device to frighten the horses of the Spaniards, but the true explanation may be different. In Mexico, at an important festival to Xipe, a god who had a close connection with agriculture, a number of prisoners were sacrificed and flayed, their captors assuming their skins, which they wore for several days.^ It is not unlikely that some such prac- tice extended to Nicaragua, and that the warriors who had taken prisoners (i.e. the best fighters, who would naturally be in the forefront) wore their gruesome trophies in actual battle. To judge from the archaeological remains of western Nicaragua and Nicoya, though many of the stone figurines (presumably idols) discovered, both large and small, are in human form, yet many are in the shape of jaguars, or monsters resembling that animal, and, in Nicoya, of birds. The last are almost invariably small, and pierced with holes for suspension (see Fig. Ii, p. 59) ; probably they were worn as amulets. The inference to be drawn is that certain animals and birds were objects of worship or superstitious regard, or ^ See Mexican Archaeology, pp. 37-39, 65. NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 27 that some of the gods were pictured in animal form. Many of the metates, or mealing-stones, especially those of Nicoya, are carved to represent a dragon-like creature, and it is possible that here we have a repre- sentation of the earth-monster who played so important a part in Mexican and Mayan beliefs. At least the form is applicable to the instrument by which the produce of the earth was prepared for human con- sumption. Of the beliefs of the Sumo-Mosquito very little is known. Oviedo states that the inhabitants of the mountains in the province of Chontales made blood- offerings by piercing their tongues, while a few points of Sumo and Mosquito mythology have already been given on pp. 8-10. The Mosquito of the seventeenth century had certain diviners called Succhea, who held considerable political power since they were consulted on all important matters and their opinions were of the greatest weight in the tribal assemblies. Their advice was sought especially when a warlike expedition was being planned. After a feast which involved the con- sumption of much cassava-beer the Succhea summoned the " devil " (called Wallasoe) by prolonged incanta- tions. The feat was not easy, since we are told that the spirit often kept the council waiting a couple of days before he condescended to appear. Even then he was visible only to the Succhea, who became frenzied under his inspiration. When the latter recovered he an- nounced the oracle delivered to him by his super- natural visitor. The Succhea was also the principal medical man, and as such was consulted by the friends of the patient as to the issue of the malady, and was also invited to apply treatment. For the latter purpose he visited the hut of the sick man by night, the patient was seated on his lap, and the two were covered with a sheet of bark. Lengthy incantations followed, accompanied by 28 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY prolonged sucking of portions of the patient's body, by which means the evil was supposed to be extracted. A peculiarity of medical treatment among this people lay in the fact that the patient was forced to eat as much as possible, especially of green turtle. The Mosquito believed that the soul after death went away to " another place," a sort of heaven, in which, how- ever, no rewards or punishments were distributed. This heaven was quite distinct from that peopled by the souls of their foes of the interior, and was visited nightly by the sun after he had set upon this world. . Nothing is known of the religion of the early Rama tribes. In fact, the only light shed upon this subject lies in the statement that when Columbus visited the village Cariari, or Cariay, on the south bank of the river San Juan, the natives " when they came near the Christians scattered some powder about them in the air, and burning some of the same powder, endeavoured to make the smoke go towards the Christians." As most of the tribes usually imagined the Spaniards to be of divine origin when they first saw them, this may have been in the nature of a religious offering, and may point to the use of incense, as among the Mexican and Maya. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I FOR the sake of convenience it will perhaps be as well to add here a short note on the linguistic classification of the peoples with whom the foregoing chapter has dealt. Most of the early chroniclers divide the tribes into five separate linguistic stocks, and though they do not all agree at first sight, it is possible to recon- cile their accounts in a perfectly satisfactory manner. It would be beyond the scope of this book to enter into a lengthy discussion on the subject, and the following is only a brief summary. Those who wish to enter APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I 29 more deeply into the problems involved may consult Bulletin 44 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America, by Cyrus Thomas and John R. Swanton, and Dr, Walter Lehmann's paper, Ergebnisse einer Forschungsreise in Mittelamerika und Mexico, published in the Zeitschrift fUr Ethnologie, 1910, p. 687, as well as the different authors therein quoted. The appended table shows the various dialects according to the earliest authors. LANGUAGES OF NICARAGUA. OviEDO. GoMARA. Herrera. Palacio, Teem used in this book. I. Mexicana Mexicana Mexicana Pipil Corrupta^ Nicarao 2. Chorotega Chorotega Chuloteca Mangue Chorotega 3- Chondal Chondal Chontal Chontal Sumo- Mosquito '4- Del Golfo de Orotinaruba (Orotina ar- riba) hacia la parte del Nor- deste Coribici Coribici Rama- Guatuso 5- Maribio Orotina Orotina Maribio Subtiaba As regards the first three there is no difficulty. It has been stated that the Mangue are a branch of the Choro- tega, while it seems now proved that the speech current in the province of Chontales extended over the rest of eastern Nicaragua. As regards the Rama-Guatuso, it has also been stated above that the Guatuso are almost certainly the descendants of the old Corobici, while the Rama speak an allied dialect. Oviedo, whose text seems to be corrupt at, this point, defines the area of the speech, which thus corresponds. In the last however certain divergencies appear, but these can be reconciled 1 The Pipil are a tribe of Nahuatl stock inhabiting Salvador. 30 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY without serious difficulty. First as regards the term Maribio. This problem is not difficult o£ solution, since the volcanoes in the neighbourhood of Chichigalpa and Leon to this day retain the name o£ " the Mari- bios," and therefore it is perfectly fair to identify the Maribio of Oviedo and Palacio with the remaining descendants of the old Subtiaba, who we know in- habited this region, but who are now extinct. The use of the term Orotiiia by Gomara and Herrera to define the fifth speech is more puzzling, since there is plenty of evidence to show that the inhabitants of the Gulf of Orotifia, the Orotinan proper, were a branch of Choro- tega. Oviedo for instance makes a categorical state- ment to this effect. However Lehmann makes a most ingenious suggestion which appears to solve the diffi- culty. He notes that one of these very volcanoes, which are known by the name of the Maribios, still bears the name of Orota, and the inhabitants of its slopes and neighbourhood would naturally be termed by the Spaniards " Orotinan." This conjecture at once iden- tifies the Orotina of Gomara and Herrera with the Subtiaba, and the whole of the table thus falls into line. That the name should occur in two authors is not sur- prising, since Gomara's work was first published in 15^3, and Herrera probably copied his classification. The classification of peoples, on broad linguistic lines, adopted in this book, is given in Map i . Explanation 0/ Map I I a. Mangue 5f. Ulua li. Dirian ^J, Mosquito ic. Nicoyan 6a. Veto, Suere I J. Orotinan 66. Guetar 2. Subtiaba 7. Talamancan (" Chiriqui ") 3. Nicarao (Nahuatl) 8. Dorasque 4(7. Corobici (Guatuso) 9. Guaymi 4/J. Rama 10. Cueva (Coiba) 5(2. Matagalpa II. Choco ^i. Sumo MAP I LINGUISTIC MAP OF SOUTHERN CENTRAL AMERICA To face page 30 CHAPTER II.— NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA (continued) THE dress of the Nicarao, simple though it was, was yet more extensive than that of most of the tribes which form the subject of this volume. The material was almost invariably cotton, and the garments were frequently woven in several colours. The men usually wore a sleeveless tunic and a breechcloth, the latter undyed ; women of rank wore an upper garment, similar to that of the men, and a skirt reaching to the ankles, while those of the lower classes wore merely a skirt falling to the knee. In either case the skirt was supported by a cotton belt. The usual form of coiffure consisted in shaving the head on the forehead and at the back, and leaving a crown of hair running from ear to ear. Paint was freely used as an aid to beauty, especially at festivals, and Oviedo mentions the fact that actual tatuing was performed by professional operators, who made incisions with a stone knife in the skin of the patient and rubbed in charcoal. Both men and women were tatued, and though the statement of Oviedo is a little obscure, in so far as it is doubtful whether he is speaking of the Nicarao or Chorotega, there is no doubt that the custom prevailed in eastern Nicaragua. The Nicarao moulded the heads of infants so as to produce a boss on either side and a depression in the middle. They alleged two reasons for this custom : first that the gods had told their ancestors that it gave a noble appearance to the individual so treated, and second that it made the head harder for carrying burdens. The Maya tribes further to the 3' 32 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY north also practised head-deformation, but their aim was to produce a flat and receding brow. The ears were pierced for ornaments, and probably the lips also, in Mexican fashion. As regards the Chorotega, most of our information relates to the Nicoyans, but it may be taken for certain that the Mangue and Dirian sections clad themselves in similar fashion, though their dress may have been modified by contact with the Nicarao. The Nicoyan men went nude, or wore a cotton breechcloth ; the women a breechcloth, with, in some cases, a sleeveless tunic similar to that of the Nicarao. Long coloured belts, also of cotton, were worn in addition, wrapped round the waist. The men wore their hair long, arranged in a single braid down the back, or cut it rather short and brushed it up from the crown. The women occasionally adopted the former fashion, but more usually parted it in the middle and bound it up in a large knot over each ear. We hear of no head- dresses other than the feather diadems worn at festi- vals, but certain of the sculptures found on the islands in Lake Nicaragua represent figures with a kind of fillet round the forehead or a sort of flat cap. Combs were worn in the hair, constructed of stags' bone or black wood, the teeth attached by means of a red or black fcement composed in the main of bat-dung. Paint was freely applied to face and body, and the ears and lips were pierced for the reception of bone and gold orna^ ments. Both sexes wore sandals of deerskin, with a cotton cord passing between the two first toes and attached to the ankle. We are told that women wore necklaces, and a large number of beads have been found in different localities. From the burial urns excavated on the island of Ometepec, in Lake Nicaragua, pierced shells and several hundred pottery beads, with incised orna- mentation, have been taken, besides beads of green argillite, copper and a fragile white substance of NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 33 uncertain nature, probably the bone of the cuttle-fish. Beads of the latter material, of bowenite, shell and gypsum, have also been found in Nicoya. The shape of these beads varies from discoid to barrel-shaped and cylindrical, while the gold beads consist simply of small plates rolled into a tube. Gold beads, and studs for the ear and lip have been discovered in Nicoya, and also bird-shaped pendants which almost certainly were imported from further south. The lip-studs, according to statements of early writers, were removed at meals. Tatuing was certainly practised in Nicoya, where the favourite pattern was a jaguar depicted on the arm, and Oviedo's statement, quoted above, most likely had reference to the Chorotega as a whole. In the Subtiaba district the men wore long pleated skirts of cotton, and in some places tunics also, while the women were clad in a short skirt and a head-cloth which fell down over the breast and upper arms. In the Sumo territory, head-deformation was prac- tised by at least one tribe, who pressed the heads of infants between a block of wood and a stone. This tribe was one of those hostile to the Mosquito, and therefore near the coast. They went naked except for necklets of shell beads, human teeth and nails (ex- tracted from their unhappy captives) and beads pur- chased from the Mosquito (this in 1699). At a later period, Seemann states that tatuing by cautery was practised by the Sumo of the interior. The Mosquito themselves simply wore a breechcloth of cotton textile or bark at ordinary times, though a number of ornaments were added on festal occasions. The author last quoted gives the gala dress of this people as the following. Besides the breechcloth, the men wore cotton bands with bright feathers attached round their wrists and above and below the knee. On the breast was a thin plate made out of a dollar-piece beaten out flat, the successor of the gold plate so 34 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY frequently seen on this coast at the time of Columbus. Between the shoulders was suspended a bone tube, made from a shin-bone, with a bunch of feathers, and shells depended from their ears. The septum of the nose was pierced for the reception of a rod of bone or cane, and a turtle-shell hook, inserted in a perforation in the under-lip, supported a pendant plate of brass or shell. The body, or the face only, was painted with pinewood charcoal, over which a " varnish " of turpen- tine was applied. The women wore skirts of bark from waist to inid-thigh, and painted themselves red with the juice of certain berries. To the west of Cape Gracias a Dios in the time of Columbus, certain of the coastal tribes, whether Sumo or Mosquito is uncertain, distended their ears to such an extent that they " may put a hen's egg into them," and further their arms and bodies " have figures wrought on them with fire " (like the Sumo mentioned by Seemann), or were covered with painted designs resembling " lions, tigers and castles." Black and red paint was applied op the occasion of festivals, and cotton tunics and head-cloths were sometimes seen. On the Mosquito coast proper, Columbus found both sexes wearing breechcloths of cotton ornamented with coloured patterns, their faces and bodies liberally be- decked with red and black pigment, from the juice of certain berries. At the village Cariari or Cariay, immediately south of the Rio San Juan, in Rama territory, in the time of Columbus the men went nude while the women wore skirts reaching to the ankle. In this neighbourhood the men had the advantage in the matter of hair-dressing, the fringe was cut moderately short, while the rest of the hair was allowed to grow long and bound up with fillets round the head in braids or rolls. The women wore it cut short. The hoviseg of the Njcgrao were not large, they were NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 35 built of posts with reed walls and straw roofs. A village comprised two hundred or so of these huts, which were arranged along a wide street, the habitations of the chief men and the workers in gold being situated near that of the chief. The houses of the Chorotega were on a far larger scale, in this respect resembhng the dwellings of the tribes further south. At the village Tecoatega, already mentioned, the residence of the Cacique included a spacious court, where, to the right of the entrance, was a large storehouse. Opposite was the Cacique's house, a low building about a hundred paces long, with eaves reaching to the ground. This low pattern of building was necessary in a country sub- ject to hurricanes and earthquakes. The interior was dark, because there were no windows, and the door was kept shut during the day as a protection against mosquitoes. In the middle of the court was a long shelter without walls, eighty paces by ten, consisting of a cane roof thatched with reeds, supported by three pairs of wooden pillars and three stout cross-beams. The long axis ran from east to west, so as to give as much shelter from the sun as possible. Near the eastern end was a cane couch, ten feet long by five broad and three feet high, covered with palm-leaf mats and furnished with a wooden pillow. Close by were a bow and quiver of arrows and a gourd of honey, sus- pended from a post, and, ten paces off, a double row of mats and pillows, where the nobles reclined, feet in- wards, in silence, awaiting the commands of the Cacique, since they acted as messengers and general executive. Attached to the shelter was a closed house where the women pounded maize, and hard by were two small huts in which were buried two of the Cacique's sons who had died in infancy. At the other end of the court were four long canes supporting the heads of deer killed by the Cacique, and near them was the day-house of his women, which was used as a 36 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY sleeping-place by their female attendants. The nobles slept under the shelter. Besides these buildings there were huts for guards, and a party, which was relieved at intervals, kept watch in the centre of the court. Fruit-trees surrounded the court. The gabled shed without walls is found in other parts of the same area, for instance among the Guatuso, descendants of the Corobici, where it is supported on short posts and thatched with palm-leaves. The seventeenth-century author too mentions a similar pattern of habitation as characteristic of the Mosquito, stating that many of them were rather lofty. How- ever, in later times the closed form of hut seems to have been common on the Mosquito coast. At Cariari in the Rama region Columbus' party was astonished at the " great wooden palace, thatched with canes," of the chief ; but whether this was furnished with walls or not is not stated. It is probable, however, that this too was merely a shelter. Where the open house is found, there too hammocks are usually employed ; but even where the hammock is in use it is not necessarily the only form of bed. For instance the Guatuso, who use the hammock, sleep also on the ground on couches of plantain leaves. In this favoured region food was plentiful and easy to procure. On the sea-coast and on the shores of the lakes, fish (together with turtle and manatee on the east coast) constituted an important article of diet. Manatees were captured by means of harpoons, •, furnished with a long line and a float ; fish were " pierced with a smaller harpoon or javelin, besides being caught in nets. Sandy Key, at Cape Gracias a Dios, was a favourite resort for the neighbouring tribes, who used to repair thither in the dry season. The seven- teenth-century writer gives an interesting account of the process. The harpoon or javelin the fishers " throw 20 or 30 yards from them at a single fish which NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 37 they cannot see through, the thickness of the water, saving only a little curling wave which they call the fish's wake, and by that they guess how deep he swims under water, it may be 2 or 3 foot ; in which exercise they very seldom miss their game." Tribes in these localities were good watermen, especially the Mosquito, who were especially venture- some in their frail dug-out canoes. Hunting, by means of bows, snares and nets, was also practised to a con- siderable extent, especially by the inland peoples. Deer, pig, agouti, dumb dogs (as in Mexico), birds of all sorts, including the curassow (the " turkey " of the early chroniclers), and iguanas were the principal food- animals. Agriculture was practised to an extent vary- ing directly with the cultural progress of the different tribes. Thus the Nicarao and Chorotega, the most advanced, were not entirely ignorant of the value of artificial irrigation in times of drought. The most important food-plant was maize, which was ground on a stone slab usually called by the Mexican name metate. These metates have been fovmd in great numbers in Nicoya, and the ancient specimens, obtained from the prehistoric cemeteries, are much used by the inhabitants of the present day. Their different varieties are described below. Bananas, plantains and 'other fruits were much in use, and though cassava, the grated root of the yucca, was eaten, at any rate on the Mosquito coast, in historical times, it is uncertain to what extent it was known, if indeed at all, at an earlier date. Cannibalism, as we have seen, was practised by the Nicarao, though its significance was in the main ceremonial. The Chorotega were also cannibals, and it is uncertain whether they adopted the habit of eating human flesh from the former or not. The fact that they observed the same religious rites would seem to show that they had, but certainly both the Mosquito and the neighbouring Sumo tribes were man-eaters. 38 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY Of the two the Sumo seem to have been the true cannibals, the Mosquito onlj^ acting in retahation. The former cooked their victims on a " barbecue," after removing their teeth and nails to serve as orna- ments. The method consisted in placing the body on a wooden framework over a fire, the process of cooking being assisted by the rays of the tropical sun. In the eastern portion of Nicaragua perhaps the most important beverage from the economic point of view was that prepared from the cacao, a plant which had been introduced into this region by the Nicarao. Oviedo states that all the cacao plantations were in the possession of this people, but since the use of the produce had spread to the Chorotega, it is probable that the latter also cultivated it, though no doubt to a less extent. To prepare the drink known to the Mexicans as chocolatl (whence our .own word " Choco- late "), the beans were first roasted in pans of pottery, and then ground on stones with a little water. The resultant paste was put into calabash cups, more water added, and, occasionally, a little spice. Among the Chorotega the drink was often coloured red with arnotto berries. Both these peoples prepared a kind of beer from maize, mixing the meal with water and allowing it to ferment, and the Chorotega are also said to have manufactured a " wine " from a kind of cherry (probably the jocote). Intoxicants played an important part at feasts, and, especially among the Chorotega, drunkenness was the inevitable sequel. Among this people it was the custom to drink alternate cups of chocolate and maize-beer until intoxication resulted. In fact, if a man failed to succumb to the effects of his potations, he was thought thereby to have proved himself no efficient warrior. Men alone as a rule took part in these drinking bouts, but the women of high rank organized similar orgies amongst themselves. Quite a long list of the drinks prepared by the NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 39 Mosquito is given by the seventeenth-century writer. The method of preparation was practically the same in every case, the ingredients only differing. Thus plan- tains and bananas were roasted or boiled, mashed in a shell of water and left to ferment. Certain berries pounded in wooden mortars, and maize and cocoanuts ground between stones were similarly treated, but the most potent intoxicant was prepared from pineapples, pounded, mixed with water, and put aside in great gourds to ferment. At a later date at any rate a beverage was prepared from cassava. The preparation of this was practically similar to that of kava among the Polynesians. The root was patiently chewed by the women, who spat the residue into a bowl ; water was added later, and fermentation was complete in two or three days. It is probable that the method, as well as the root, was introduced from further south (p. 114). Salt is always an important commodity among primitive peoples, and no doubt the more advanced tribes collected it from the lagoons ; but some of the Sumo tribes living on the edge of Mosquito territory not far from the sea employed a very primitive and laborious method. " They make a great fire close to the seaside, which when it has well burned the sticks asunder, they take them singly and dip the brands in the sea, snatching it out again not too soon nor too late ; for by the first, the drops of salt water which remain boiling on the coal would be quite consumed through too much heat, the coal being not sufficiently quenched, and, by the latter mismanagement, would be quite extinguished, and want heat to turn those drops of water into corns of salt. Which as fast as made they slightly wipe off with their hand into a leaf, then put the brand's end into the fire again, and take out the fresh ones successively, that in half an hour's time a man may make about one pound of grey salt." Throughout this region tobacco was known and 40 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY smoked in the form of cigars ; fire was produced by- friction, by the " twirling " process, as in Mexico. Trade flourished everywhere except perhaps amongst the rudest hunting tribes of the interior. All villages of any size throughout the area inhabited by the Nicarao, Subtiaba, and Chorotega, including the Nicoyans, possessed open squares in which markets were held. Trade was for the most part in the hands of the women, in fact, we are told that among the Nicarao the men of the village were not allowed in their own market-place while trading was going on, though those from other villages were permitted en- trance. Oviedo gives a long list of the goods commonly exposed for sale in the Nicarao market, including slaves, gold, textiles, maize, fish, " rabbits " (agouti), game, various birds and agricultural produce. No money in our sense of the word was employed, but maize, textiles, and especially cacao beans, constituted a rough-and-ready currency as in Mexico. But com- merce of a far more extended nature also existed. We are told that the greater part of the gold was imported from other countries, and the nature of the ornaments found proves that they must have come from central and southern Costa Rica and even Panama. When the question of pottery is considered, it will be seen that there was considerable interchange of this commodity, and further it appears certain that the hard stone pendants characteristic of Nicoya found their way in some numbers to the country further south. Even among the Sumo-Mosquito peoples there was a re- stricted trade by narrow forest paths and mountain tracks, and by river in canoes ; and we hear that certain Mosquito used to observe a truce on appointed days with their Sumo neighbours, with whom they were on terms of continual hostility, meeting them on an island in the Wanks or Coco River for the purpose of exchanging commodities. The Mosquito themselves NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 41 were daring traders by sea, and their excursions ex- tended even as far as the Chiriqui lagoon. It is notice- able that many of the rivers in Costa Rica bear names which appear to have been adopted from the Mosquito tongue. The Rama too were accustomed to extend their trading operations to foreign tribes, as we know from the following fact. Columbus on his fourth voyage, after he had skirted the Mosquito coast, came to the village of Cariari, where he took on board certain natives to act as interpreters on his southward journey. These men accompanied him beyond the Rama territory, past the Chiriqui Lagoon and the coast of Veragua to Cubigar not far from Porto Bello (see the Map, Fig. 25, p. 95). At this point they left him, saying that they had come to the limit of the country which they knew from their commercial excursions. Among the other occupations of the various tribes, the spinning and weaving of cotton was perhaps the most important. The Nicarao and Chorotega were particularly expert, and understood the preparation of parti-coloured cloths, though we do not know whether their patterns were dyed or inwoven. Spindlewhorls of pottery with incised patterns have been found in some numbers in Nicoya, and no doubt the process of spinning was the same as among the Mexicans, as shown in the Codex Mendoza.^ Probably the same form of loom was also employed.^ Spinning and weaving were the tasks of the women, except among the Chorotega, where the men, according to Herrera, prepared the thread. Among the Mosquito, bark was much in use as clothing, and it is probable that actual bark-cloth was prepared by hammering. The same article must have been manufactured in Nicoya, where stone hammers of the type used elsewhere in America for the preparation of bark-cloth have been discovered (Fig. 10, b), but these objects are unknown in the rest of 1 See Mexican Archaeology, p. i6i. ^ Loc. cit., p. 148. 42 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY the region now being described. In the eastern parts good cordage was manufactured from nequen fibre, and string for nets was prepared from the fibres of palm- leaves or bark soaked in water, or from a certain herb which was also used in the making of brooms. On the coast of Nicoya the collection of oysters and other shell-fish almost amounted to an industry, since both were important articles of food, while the oyster-shells served a further purpose ; fixed in double rows along a wooden shaft they made excellent canoe-paddles, or, singly at the end of a stick, shovels for use in the fields. Besides textiles and rude pottery, the Mosquito manu- factured little, since the men, after they had secured food sufficient for a few days by fishing or hunting, were content to spend their time lying idle in their hammocks until a fresh supply was needed. However, as stated above, they did not hesitate to undertake trading voyages along the coast, which, considering the nature of their craft, can only be described as enter- prising and courageous. Of the amusements of the peoples under discussion something will have appeared from the preceding pages, since most of their festal gatherings had a re- ligious or political significance, such as the festivals of the Nicarao and Chorotega, and the drinking-bouts of the Mosquito at which warlike expeditions were planned. But there were occasions when the feasting and dancing had no other ostensible object than the promotion of social enjoyment. One of these seems to have been the dance described by Oviedo as taking place at the village Tecoatega, already mentioned, where twenty men painted black and red danced to the sound of six drums under a shelter in the chief's court- yard. The drums are not described, but they were probably gongs constructed from hollow tree-trunks, since Benzoni states that the Nicarao performed dances in single file, following a leader, to the sound of gongs. NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 43 In the open space, near the chief, a body of twenty men, similarly painted and wearing feather crests, also performed a dance, carrying fly-whisks and javelins. Occasionally one of them would perform a fas seul in front of the chief, who cast at him a dozen or so Hght sticks, weighted with wax, with such force that many were broken by the impact. Their exertions were afterwards rewarded with cacao. A peculiar appUance, apparently used for amusement, was observed at the same village, consisting of a kind of see-saw. Two posts, connected by a cross-beam, supported a bar laid across the latter at right angles and secured in such a way that it could revolve ; the performers clung one to each end. Burial customs seem to have varied to some extent, even within the limits of the tribe. For instance, we read that among the Nicarao when a chief died, a large quantity of textUes was collected, some of which were used to wrap the corpse. The rest, together with selected specimens of each class of personal property which he had possessed, garments, feather ornaments, fly-whisks and the like, were burnt together with the bod}'. The ashes were then collected and placed, together with his ornaments of gold, in a pottery urn and buried before his house. Ordinary individuals were simply buried in their fields or huts, together with a selection of their personal property, or, if they had no children to inherit, with aU the latter. Children were wrapped in cotton cloths and buried before the house door. A similar distinction according to rank existed among the historical Alaya of Yucatan, whose chiefs were cremated and the ashes interred in urns, while the commoners were buried. The ordinary practice among the Aztec was cremation. As the early Maya appear not to have burned their dead, it may well be that the habit of cremating Yucatec chiefs was introduced in later times, especially as some, at any 44 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY rate, of the ruling houses traced their origin to the Mexican Valley. The same explanation may hold good of the Nicarao, since it would seem that the aboriginal Chorotega did not cremate ; and as the Nicarao must have won their way into the Rivas Department by force of arms, they may have regarded cremation as a superior form of disposal of the dead and have come eventually to regard it as the exclusive privilege oi the ruling family. As regards the Chorotega we have to rely almost entirely on archaeological evidence, and even that is scanty, since it refers almost exclusively to the island of Ometepec. This island fell within the Nicarao area, but the graves must almost certainly be regarded as Chorotegan. The burials are practically all in one style and the remains homogeneous, and in all but two cases the bones exhibited no traces of fire. The anti- quity of some, at any rate, of the burials would appear to be considerable, since many have been found under a solid crust of decayed lava or cinder. From these facts it may be argued, firstly that the burials represent one people, secondly that they are not Nicarao, and thirdly that they are of considerable age. It is a fair conclusion that they belong to a period when the Chorotegan aborigines had not yet been driven from the islands by the intrusive Nicarao. Unfortunately the early literature affords no contributory evidence, since the only allusion to Chorotegan burial customs occurs in the account of the village Tecoatega, given on p. 35. Here it is stated that the chief's compound included two small huts which were the graves of two of his sons who had died in infancy. The remains in Ometepec are enclosed in pottery vases, many of considerable size, of two patterns. One class is more or less spherical, made of dark, almost black, pottery, and each urn is furnished with a bowl-shaped cover of similar ware. The other class PLATE 11 < a ,-s D lr< O < n < Is J^ u w o NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 45 consists of " slipper " shaped urns, of the type shown in PI. I, which are capped with bowls of a different class of pottery. The cover-bowls are far more decora- tive, being covered with a cream-coloured slip on which patterns in black, red and brown are painted (PI. II, I, 2). These two kinds of urn with their respective types of cover are found side by side in the same cemeteries and no distinction of date or tribe can be made between them. Urn-burial is common in America, and among many tribes urns are used for secondary burial. That is to say, the body is first buried in the ordinary way, and the bones are col- lected later and laid finally to rest in a pottery vessel. Secondary burial is particularly characteristic of the southern continent east of the Andes, but the Choro- tegan burials would seem to be primary. In many cases, at any rate, there are abundant signs that the bones have not been disarticulated ; in the round vessels the body is arranged in a squatting position with the knees to the chin, while in the slipper-shaped urns it rests on its knees, which were directed towards the " toe " of the slipper. In cases where the skeleton has collapsed, the skull is found at the bottom of the vase surrounded by the other bones in their normal positions. Other pottery vessels are found in the urns and in their immediate neighbourhood, and in some cases, as at S. Helena (on the shore two and a half miles north of Moyogalpa), the skull is covered with one .of the larger bowls. In some cases food-ofierings have been buried with the body, such as beans, maize and various seeds ; and beads and other ornaments invariably accompany the human remains. In many cases the cemeteries are crowded, the urns almost touching, and there is rarely any indication above ground of the graves beneath, though on the island of Ometepec the confines of the cemeteries are marked by stones projecting a few inches above the surface. At 46 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY S. Helena several upright basaltic columns were dis- covered among the burials, but when found they did not project above the surface of the ground. How- ever, at Los Angeles, north of Moyogalpa, a truncated mound was observed, at the northern end of which was a row of unworked stone slabs ; and at Los Cocos, to the south, mounds containing burials were discovered. Graves similar in style to those on the island have been excavated on the opposite coast of Rivas, but a burial of a different type was unearthed at San Francisco, on the western side of Madera, the twin brother of Ometepec. This was a stone-lined cist, 17 feet long, the walls and roofing composed of slabs, with a flooring of similar slabs towards the northern end. A skull was found in the grave, together with pottery of a ruder description than that found elsewhere on the island, and bones were also discovered under the slabs on the floor. The condition of the bones seemed to show that the burial was of considerable age. In Nicoya occur burials of the ordinary Chorotegan type, as described above, though the accompanying remains are often of a specialized type. In particular, pottery of a better class is more common, and several classes of finely wrought stone objects peculiar to the locality are found. In one of the most important ceme- teries, at Las Guacas, to the south-east of the village of Nicoya, the bodies are not buried in urns, but simply laid in more or less oval or circular pits excavated in the hard substratum and refilled with the same earth. From the position of the bones it would appear that the bodies were arranged in a contracted position, and in isolated cases the skull was protected from the super- incumbent earth by means of an inverted metate. In this cemetery, and indeed in most, the graves are marked by no external indication ; but occasionally mounds, circular or oval, have been heaped above, and are sometimes accompanied by stone pillars similar to NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 47 those at S. Helena. Thus at Carrizal, near Punta Arenas, mounds composed of river-stones have been observed ; one of these, about 12 feet in diameter and 8 high, vi^hen opened was found to contain fragments of exceptionally good pottery and two stone metates. Hardly a single perfect pot was discovered, all having been smashed, apparently with intention. The fact that the mounds were composed of water-worn stones is in- teresting, since the rivers for many miles around are quite devoid of anything of the sort, and the stones therefore must have been brought from a considerable distance. Even in those localities where there were known to be settlements of Nicarao stock the graves do not differ from the rest, and it may be assumed either that these cemeteries antedate the Nicarao arrival, or that the immigrants adopted the burial customs of the people amongst whom they settled. At Tenorio, and other parts of the Corobici region, the graves are marked on the surface by tall upright corner- stones, with other stones arranged along the borders. For this reason they are fairly conspicuous, though veiled to some extent by the forest. These graves contain pottery of a particularly simple character. The Sumo of the department of Chontales appear, from aU accounts, to have practised simple inhumation and cremation indifferently, though the latter may have been adopted from the Nicarao. In either case the remains were deposited in urns on a hill summit in the savannah, and an artificial mound or cairn of stones heaped over them. Coarse pottery and stone metates seem to be the invariable accompaniments of a burial, and stone implements are occasionally found. These mounds are described below (p. 54). The earliest statement referring to the burial customs of the Mosquito comes from the seventeenth- century author. He asserts that the deceased was interred in his house, together with his weapons and 48 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY ornaments, while his canoe was broken up and laid on his grave with other of his household goods. If he left no parents, brothers or children, behind him, his relations would destroy his plantations, to prevent the living from " robbing the dead." His wife, or wives, and nearest female relations spent three days in fasting and lamentations, after which the former, and any of the latter who were unmarried, might be taken as wives by others. If they found no one to support them, they frequently disappeared in the woods and committed suicide by hanging. In fact, the author quotes the case of a married woman, who, at the death of her father in the absence of her husband, perished by her own hand. In later times the custom would seem to have changed in so far that the dead man was buried in the bush and a small hut constructed over the grave. His connection with his former abode was, however, maintained by a thread stretched from the latter to his grave. The custom of destroying his personal property and plantations survived, and we are told that his name might not be mentioned, a tabu which is common in many other parts of the world. Feasts to the dead were also held, in which certain animal-masks were worn. Whether these had any totemic significance is not known. As regards the Rama, from information obtained by Columbus at Cariari, the bodies of men of rank were dried over the fire on a wooden framework and pre- served wrapped in leaves. In fact, Ferdinand Colum- bus remarks that the most remarkable sight yet seen by the voyagers was " in a great wooden palace, covered with canes, several tombs, in one of which was a dead body dry'd up and enbalmed ; in another two bodies, wrapped up in cotton sheets without any ill scent ; and over each tomb was a board with the figures of beasts carved on it ; and on some of them the effigies of the persons buried there, adorned with NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 49 Guaninies [ornaments of base gold], beads and other things they most value." The admiral himself de- scribes this house as follows : " I saw there, built on a mountain, a sepulchre as large as a house and elaborately sculptured, the body lay uncovered and with the face downwards ; they also spoke to me of other very excellent works of art." This method of preserving the dead was, as will be seen later, characteristic of the peoples further south (p. iii). CHAPTER III. -NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA {continued) TO all intents and purposes the inhabitants o£ the whole of this region were living in an age of stone at the time of the discovery. Gold indeed they knew and worked, and copper also to a very slight extent ; but these two metals were used only for ornament, and all tools were constructed of stone, bone, the teeth of animals and so forth. Stone axe- or adze-blades are found throughout, especially in Ni- coya ; they are for the most part longer and thicker than those found elsewhere in Central America, the section across the middle is oval or nearly circular, and the edge, in the majority of cases, is curved. They are usually well polished except at the butt, and are never provided with grooves or notches to facilitate , attachment to a haft. As mentioned above, certain very peculiar single and double axes, haft and all carved from a single piece of stone, have been found in the Department of Chontales and again on the Mosquito coast (see PL I, i, p. i8). 5° Fig. 3. — Stone figure; Pensacola. After Squier, NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 51 But far more elaborate specimens of stone-carving have been found at Norome near Masaya, at Subtiaba near Leon, on the island of Momotombito in Lake Managua, and on the islands of Zapatera, Ometepec, Pensacola and Solentiname in Lake Nicaragua. These Fig. 4. — Stone figure ; Zapatera Is. Afler Bovallius. are large monoliths, carved in the form of human figures, usually male, whose faces look out from the jaws of a monster, or who support on head and back the weight of a huge head of bird, beast or reptile, or occasionally the entire animal (Figs. ^-7). At Momotombito Squier speaks of about fifty of these, carved from black basalt, arranged in a square and 52 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY facing inwards. At Pensacola the material is sand- stone, while on Zapatera it is again basalt. In the latter locality the monoliths are associated with pyramidal mounds of large unhewn stone blocks, piled one upon the other in fairly regular layers. From their present position it would seem that the figures were grouped round the bases of these mounds, though it is impossible to speak with certainty until an accurate survey has been taken. Many of these monoliths represent a human figure without any associ- ated animal, seated on a pillar, and sometimes with a headdress varying from a kind of fillet to a high-crowned cap. One of the pillars is interesting, since it evi- dently represents a gong of South American pattern (Fig. s), while two figures with long beards, one of which is shown in Fig. 6, are remarkable from the fact that the natives have never been known to wear such an adornment. Stone figures with beast headdresses, associated with stone mounds, immediately suggest the famous stelae of Copan, Quirigua and other early Maya sites, while beast headdresses are a common feature in Mexican manu- scripts. It may be that both the mounds and monoliths are to be attributed to the Nicarao, and are therefore later than the graves found on the same islands. At any rate, none of the former have as yet been reported from any district except that occupied by, or contingent to, this immigrant people, whose form of worship as we Fig. 5. — Stone figure ; Zapa tera Is. After Squier. NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA know involved the use of sacri- ficial mounds. Still, on the other hand, we know that the Mosquito in historical times were in the habit of wearing animal-masks in funeral cere- monies, and II their migration legend points to this region as their original home. As to the animals depicted, a reptile suggesting a monstrous crocodile, or in other cases a snake, seems to be the common- est, and these are both found with great frequency in the art both of the Mexicans and Maya, the former in the guise of the earth-monster, termed cipactli by the Mexicans, while the snake had even greater prominence. The feathered snake in particu- lar was symbolical of one of the highest gods, and it is worthy of note that one of the figures from Subtiaba represents a man looking from the jaws of this animal (Fig. 7). Again the feathered snake is shown clearly in a r ock-p ainting ne ar Managua (Fig. 8i), and the device shown in Fig. 8(2, which occurs among the rock-sculptures of the island Ceiba, off Zapatera, may well be a conventional way of depicting the same mythological animal. As for the bearded figures, so rare in American archaeology. ,(Ai Fig. 6. — Stone figure ; Zapa- tera Is. After BovalUus. 54 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY almost the only parallels are two stelae at Quirigua, and the figures of certain of the gods in the Maya manu- scripts. It would be tempting to see in these monoliths traces of a former Maya population, antecedent to the Nicarao. Maya influence maybe traced in this direction as far, according to some authorities, as the islands in Fonseca Bay, and from Fonseca Bay to the Nicaraguan lakes is not a very far cry. But it is difficult to distinguish between debased Maya art and the art of a Nahuatl tribe which has passed through Maya country and come under Maya influence, and in the present limited state of our knowledge of the archaeology of this region I think that it is safer to suspend judgment on this point. In the Department of Chontales, in the Sumo region, occur cairns of loose rocks constructed on a rectangular ground-plan. Some of these are very large, measuring about 58 by 40 yards along the ground-line and 10 feet or less in height. The sides are usually sloped, or, in rare cases, perpendicular, while - . the edge of the upper surface is invari- FiG. 7.— Stone figure ; , i r • i i * i /-v n Subtiaba. ably tumishcd with a parapet. Un all After Squier. ^j-g f Q^n J ^^Q fragments of statues and pedestals, or the holes where they were planted. The position of the remains would seem to indicate . that there was originally a small statue placed at each corner, and one or niore larger in the centre. A large example of these mounds, situated at Libertad near Chontales, when opened was found to contain a number of metates and coarse pottery vases, while in others burial urns have been discovered. Of other works involving combined labour there is PLATE 11 COSTA RICA 1. bTONE STOOL; TaI.AM ANCA.V 2. Pottery stool; Talamancan 3, 4, Stone Metate; Nicoya (Scale : I, i, i/6th ; 3, 4, i/8tli) EviUsli ,I/;^w NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 55 little trace, or rather little has been reported up to the present time. Squier mentions some peculiar " trenches," near Juygalpa, in Chontales, 3 or 4 yards wide at the bottom, and extending away indefinitely in a straight line. At intervals the trench widened out into oval sunken areas, 60 to 80 feet across, in some o£ which were small mounds. Hartman describes a " sunk road," 50 centimetres deep, running from the cemetery at Las Guacas, in Nicoya, northward over the sierras, and it may be that the excavations in Chontales are roads also. Hartman, too, speaks of remains of a stone a b Fig. 8. — a, rock carving, Ceiba Is. ; b, rock painting, near Managua. building in the same locality, practically the only one reported from the whole region. Some of the most interesting of the stone remains of this area are the metates. Like the Mexicans, the in- habitants were in the habit of grinding their grain on oblong slabs of stone, usually supported on three legs cut from the solid, flat in the direction of the trans- verse diameter, but concave longitudinally. To tri- turate the grain a subcylindrical stone roller was used, the ends of which projected beyond the edges of the metate and were grasped by the user. Many of these rollers have also been found, some of them showing signs of considerable wear. Metates are 56 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY among the most frequent of the finds, and great numbers have been discovered in Nicoya, where there is a regular trade in them for use by the present-day inhabitants. Hartman estimates that two thousand must have been excavated from the cemetery of Las Guacas alone. Many of these metates are quite plain, but numbers of the Nicoyan specimens are elaborately carved. The labour involved in producing one of these utensils from solid stone without the aid of metal may be imagined. Hartman classifies the Nicoyan metates as falling into two types, one in which the legs are circular in section, and the other in which they are triangular. The ornamentation is naturally for the most part confined to the under side and legs, though the upper surface may be decorated with an orna- mental border or a panel of carving across one end. The ornament is in low relief, and the commonest designs in the case both of panel and of border are the guilloche, twist and interlaced ornament. The orna- ment on the under side, also in low relief, may be similar, though concentric squares and other formal designs occur ; but the most interesting are those which present the figure of a man or some animal, such as jaguar, monkey, bird, alligator or bat. In some cases the head of the animal in high relief constitutes one of the legs, this in a few of the round-legged type. The flat-legged type (PI. Ill, 3 and 4) includes specimens which, though smaller than many of the other class, are more highly ornamented. The legs themselves are usually perforated and carved in a design representing, or derived from, an inverted human figure. In many cases a pair of pierced knobs or loops project from the edge or under side of one of the ends, and sometimes their place is taken by the head of a jaguar or parrot, which gives the whole appliance a very animal-like appearance (Fig. 9). As stated before, a stone roller of more or less NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 57 cylindrical shape was used in conjunction with the metates, but certain " stirrup "-shaped rubbing- stones have been found, though not in great numbers, which may have served the same purpose (Fig. loa). Other industrial appliances are oval discoid stones. Fig. g.— Stone MeMes ; Nicoya. National Museum, Costa Rica. After Hartman. Scale, a,\; b, f . with parallel' grooves on their faces and another broader groove encircling the edge (Fig. 10^). These were probably used as beaters in the manufacture of bark-cloth, and were furnished with a handle by bend- ing a pliant twig round the groove and securing the two ends by a lashing. One similar stone, but quad- rangular with rounded corners, is figured by Bovallius 58 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY as coming from Zapatera. The cemetery of Las Guacas is peculiar in having produced a greater number of perforated stone mace-heads than any other in Central America (see Fig. 2, p. 1 7) . Some of 'these are of the plain ring type, others are cylindrical with rows of projecting knobs, others again are more or less spherical and are carved to represent death's-heads or the heads of birds. Some, on one side of the perforation, have a conical pick-like projection, while on the other is a knob carved in the form of a bird's or alligator's head. Fig. 10. — a, stone pestle; i, stone bark-beater; Nicoya. a, National Museum, Costa Rica; b, Carnegie Museum. After Hartman. Scale, a, ^ ; b, \. None of these mace-heads are very large, and it seems probable that their use was ceremonial. The perfora- tion is vertical and evidently intended for the reception of a wooden shaft ; the sides are perpendicular, imply- ing the use of a tubular drill, such as was employed in Mexico. Many of the specimens were obviously drilled from both sides, and a slight ridge is apparent half-way down the perforation, caused by the difficulty of making the two borings coincide exactly. Hartman was lucky enough to find one of the cores, thus proving conclusively that the drill was tubular ; it was probably of bone or cane and was employed in conjunction with water and sand. NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 59 The Nicoyan cemeteries are remarkable for the number of jadeite pendants which have been found in them, usually carefully stored away in pottery vessels. These pendants conform to a number of types (Fig. 1 1). Some^ are simply oblong plates, unornamented, but beautifully polished ; others, still in the form of plates, are engraved or carved in low relief to represent human figures, birds, alligators, frogs, turtles or bats ; others again are fashioned in similar forms, but in the rdund. The plates were evidently separated from the block by Fig. II. — Stone Pendants ; Nicoya. a, c, d, Carnegie Museum ; b. National Museum, Coita Rica. After Hart man. Scale \. sawing, probably by means of a string armed with sand ; the operation was performed first from one side and then from the other, and a scar is frequently seen where the two grooves failed to coincide exactly. The labour involved in cutting, engraving and polishing these small objects must have been enormous, but to primitive man time is a matter of little importance, and there are plenty of parallels from other parts of the world. The New Zealanders, also a " Stone Age " people, fashioned their even more intractable jade with equal skill and by similar primitive means, and the Easter Islanders made fish-hooks of basalt, the preparation of which can have been little less laborious. 6o CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY The cemetery of Las Guacas has produced more jadeite than the rest of Central America combined; a few similar pendants, probably of Nicoyan origin, have been found in central Costa Rica, while orna- ments of this material have not been found in Salvador and are rare in Honduras and Guatemala. It is strange that no indication of the source of the Nicoyan jadeite is as yet forthcoming. That the inhabitants regarded it as a precious material is obvious from the fact that all sorts of scraps have been made into pendants, and occasionally a carved ornament has been sawn in half and worn without further modification of the design. Besides pendants, it was also used for the construction of slender tubes, sometimes with raised ornamental bands, the perforation of which must have presented great diffi- culties, of beads and of the hooks of spear-throwers, which often assume animal forms (Fig. I, p. 17). It was hardly ever used for the manufacture of imple- ments such as axe-blades. Beads of stone are frequently found in the burial-urns of the country further north, occurring in greater quantities in the smaller vases which probably contained the bodies of children. They have been pierced from either side by means of a solid drill, as is shown by the fact that the perforation is bi-conical or X-shaped in vertical section. Finally, coming from Nicoya, may be mentioned certain peculiar " waisted " stone axe-blades, to which parallels may be cited from the highlands of central Costa Rica (see Fig. 19^, p. 79). From the Mosquito country, besides the peculiar double axes already mentioned (similar to PI. I, i, p. 18), come remarkable stone tripod bowls, with birds' heads in high relief (see PI. VI, i, p. 74), which indicate that the early inhabitants of this region of Nicaragua were possessed of no mean skill in the work- ing of hard stone. PLATE IV ^ W NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 6i It is not very easy to write in a comprehensive manner about the pottery of this area, since, on the one hand, more material is required, and, on the other, the material available has not been properly classified. In the main two chief varieties may be distinguished, painted and unpainted. The pots falling in the first class are dependent upon relief and incised ornament for their decoration, those of the second rely principally on colour. The distinction is not absolute, since a few of the " unpainted " variety show stripes in dull red pigment, while many of the painted are embellished with moulded ornament. The distin- guishing mark of the painted variety is the presence of a creamy slip which forms a background for the designs. The paste of the unpainted class varies considerably in colour, from yellowish brown, through all shades of reddish brown, to deep chocolate and almost black. The forms are very varied, one of the most typical being the " slipper " shape, which is characteristic of the burial urns mentioned above (PI. I, 2, p. 1 8). The ware is very fairly well fired, and the vessels, even the largest, are moulded with a good deal of taste, indicating con- siderable mastery over material on the part of the potter. The burial urns are only slightly decorated, the most constant ornament being a snake or snakes in relief at the " toe " of the slipper, though occasionally a grotesque face is found also at the other end. These urns are characteristic of the coast and islands of Lake Nicaragua. Associated with them are found many smaller vases of similar ware, displaying considerable variety of type, and often very graceful in outline, with thin and well-burnished walls (PL IV, p. 60). Circular bowls with plain or everted lips, and round-bottomed jars with small paired handles or an ornamental knob representing the head of an animal, are common, and also beakers with a grotesque face in relief. Many of these are furnished with a narrow band of incised 62 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY formal pattern, such as a zigzag, encircling the mouth. The mouths of the round-bottomed vases are con- stricted in varying degree, and many approximate to the bottle type ; occasionally the base is slightly flattened, but a really flat bottom is hardly ever found, and vessels of this type must have required a stand. Flanged rings of clay have been discovered which prob- ably served this purpose. Tripod bowls also occur, the legs of which are hollow, and are often moulded to repre- sent the head of some beast or bird, a common charac- teristic of early American tripods from Vera Cruz to Panama. Many fragments are found consisting of Fig. 12. -Pottery fragments ; a, Ometepec Is. ; d-d, Zapatera. After Bovallius. Scale J. ornamental knobs, moulded to represent the heads of grotesque human beings and monsters (Fig. 12), the latter frequently recalling the dragon- or crocodile- like earth-monster of the Mexican and Maya. Many of the details in such cases have been applied, and vases have been found covered with formal designs in applied work, the details formed of the same conventional alligator scales or " scutes " which are so characteristic of the pottery of central Costa Rica (see p. 82). The painted ware is more interesting from the point of view of decoration. The paste is homogeneous and well fired, and is covered with a thick cream-coloured slip on which the designs are painted in a variety of colours, red, orange and, rarely, blue. Details are often added in black, and black outlines are common. NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 63 Shapes are varied and elegant, various forms o£ bowls, often wkh incurved edges, some with tripod legs, and vases with three cascabel feet, or with a single expand- ing foot, are perhaps the most common. In the case of the tripod bowls the legs are hollow, and assume a variety of forms, grotesque snouty masks (PL IV, 6, p. 60) resembling the face of the Mexican wind-god, birds' heads (PI. IV, 4), or entire birds (Fig. 13). Many show details in relief, such as the bird-heads on the bowl from Guanacaste shown in Fig. 15, or the faces moulded on the bowls from Ometepec (PL II, i and 2). Fig. 13. — Pottery bowl ; Ometepec Is. National Museum, Washington. After Brans/ord, Small hollow figurines with stumpy arms and legs, of the type shown in Fig. 14, are especially common in Nicoya, but occur also on the islands in the lake. The finest specimens of the painted ware have been dis- covered in Nicoya, and two beautiful examples are shown on PL V, p. 64. In a the design is almost purely Mexican in type, and consists in an excellent portrait of the earth-monster as it appears in the Fejervary-Mayer manuscript (se.& Mexican Archaeology , Fig. 143, p. 104). In b the design is less typically Mexican, though strongly reminiscent, of that art ; it represents a man armed with a large axe confronted by a jaguar or ocelot. The vase shown in PL II, Fig. 4, has a somewhat similar design. Some of these 64 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY finely painted vases have details moulded in relief, but vessels of this quality are exceedingly rare. Less un- common are vases belonging to a type showing less perfection in workmanship, such as the tripod bowls illustrated in PL IV and Fig. 13, and the figurine. Fig. 14. These are remarkably similar to a variety of pottery from the central highlands of Costa Rica which is described on p. 84 and illustrated on PL XI, p. 86 ; and it is not impossible that their wide distribution may be due to trade. Pottery of this class has been found on the islands of Lake Nicaragua, and even further north at Managua. Still more simple and less skilfully moulded are the pots shown in Fig. 15, which are characteristic of Guanacaste, and are attri- buted by Lehmann to the early Corobici. Though the painted ware of the second class has been discovered in Lake Nicaragua, it cannot be said to be characteristic of Fig. 14.— Pottery figure ; Omete- this particular region. Here pec Is. After Bovalhus. Scale i. r i • r • i a fourth variety or pamted ware is found, distinguished by highly specialized patterns which at first sight appear to be unconnected with the other types of polychrome pottery. Speci- mens of this are shown on PL II, 1-3, p. 44, and designs taken from a number of pots appear in Fig. i6a-d. Included in this class are the bowls which serve as covers to the " slipper "-shaped burial-urns (PL II, I and 2), but other forms, such as the tripod bowl in PL II, occur also. Faces of a grotesque character moulded in low relief and emphasized by painted PLATE V 32 NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA 65 details frequently appear on vessels of this type, but the principal feature is constituted by designs, arranged in panels, of a peculiarly puzzling nature. It has been found impossible to collect a sufficient number of these designs to work them out very convincingly, but I think that the origin of one particular set may appear from a comparison of the foUow^ing details. One of the commonest forms of the design is shown in Fig. 16a. This occurs with great frequency, and the elements to which I would draw attention are the small circle enclosing a dot, the bracket-like figure below to the left, which is echoed by the outline of the panel next Fig. 15. — Pottery bowls ; Guanacaste. After Lehmann. Scale about \, to it, the engrailed edge of the panel itself, and the two panels to the right. Immediately to the right of the circle, and touching it, is a small detail shaped like a square bracket, which is also of importance. In h the panels to the right have disappeared, the circle has descended to the curved bracket, and the square bracket has moved up and round until it lies on the circle. The three combined elements now faintly resemble an eye with a heavy eyebrow and a wide- opened jaw. Such, in fact, I believe them to be, and I suggest Fig. 1 7^, taken from a tripod vase of the same class, as suggesting the key. Here we have a monster the outline of whose mouth and nose represents the curved bracket, but whose teeth in Fig. \6a have become separated from his jaw and appear in the engrailing of 66 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY the panel to the left, the outline of which echoes that of the jaw-element. The two panels to the right are the remains of the bodj^ as it appears in Fig. i J a. An Fig. i6.—a-e, Designs from Ometepec pottery ;y, design from Nicoyan vase-n intermediate step is provided hj Fig. 16/", a panel from a vase of the first and best class, where the teeth are represented by an indented panel in its proper position, and where the eyebrow is also a prominent feature. Now in Mexican, and especially in Mayan art, both the NICARAGUA AND N.E. COSTA RICA d-j earth-monster and the feathered snake display as their main features an exaggerated upper jaw and an " eye- plate," the latter taken direct from the rattlesnake. The termination of the body of the monster in Fig. 1 7^ suggests feathers, and I would conclude that the feathered snake is the root-idea of the ornamentation of this variety of pottery, and that here again we have a definite trace of influence coming from the north and west. The two most naturalistic snake designs which Fig. 17. — a. Design from vase from Managua ; b, design from vase from Nicoya. I have been able to discover are shown in Figs. \']a and h, one taken from a vase of the Lake Nicaragua class, the other from the finely painted Nicoyan class,_ and here too the same essential elements may be recognized. Fig. \Q) however does not show the last stage of the design ; a further step appears in Fig. l6f, and yet another in Fig. 16J, where the same elements occur, but modified so as to produce symmetry. The last stage is shown in Fig. 16^, where the jaw has become a mere pair of frets appended to the eye, and the eyebrow becomes a dominant feature. I have given perhaps 68 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY undue space to the discussion of this class of ornamen- tation, because, apart from the fact that it provides, I beUeve, an explanation of the origin of the pattern, it furnishes an interesting example of the degradation of a naturalistic motive. Examples of such degradation are well known in other parts of the world, and the dissection of animals and modification of the various portions of their anatomy is a well-known fe'ature of Late Celtic art. Other highly conventionalized designs occur, some perhaps derived from monkey-figures, while others are more obvious, and include the heads of birds. The latter usually appear as small details in the field of a panel, or disposed at intervals on the walls of a bowl. Pottery whistles are often found in Nicoyan graves, furnished with one or more finger-holes by means of which the note may be varied, but they are hot nearly so common as in the country further east. One interesting vase is figured by Bransford, but seems to be unique in this area. This is a standing bowl fashioned from a reddish paste and covered with a cream slip in which patterns were incised. This class of ornament is well known in Guatemala, but is cer- tainly not typical of the area with which we are imme- diately concerned. This short survey of the pottery may be concluded by a reference to Oviedo, who states that a particularly fine class of ware was manufactured on the island of Chira, in the Gulf of Nicoya, black and lustrous as jet. The author further asserts that it formed an important article of trade, and it may be that some of the finer and darker examples of the unpainted ware discovered in the graves on the mainland and in the islands of the lake were imported thence. Metal objects are not very common in this part of America. Gold figurines have been found, it is true, both in Nicoya and in the district of Lake Nicaragua, but they are all in the style characteristic of western NICARAGUA AND N.E, COSTA RICA 69 Panama, where they have been found in great numbers, and they too probably constituted an article of com- merce. The reverse side of this almost certain inter- course is seen in the occasional presence, in southern Costa Rica and Panama, of jadeite objects identical in style with those found in such numbers in Nicoya. In Nicoya, curiously enough, gold is hardly ever found in graves containing jadeite ornaments, and vice versa. Much of the gold is alloyed with copper, the latter frequently constituting a very high percentage of the alloy. But copper objects are very rare, the finest recorded being a mask in the form of a jaguar-head figured by Squier. The gold ornaments being of the same technique as those of Panama, it will be sufficient to refer to p. 124, where the latter are discussed in full. On the whole the art of this region may be said to show connection both with the south and with the north. From the south came the gold and certain cultural features particularly connected with the Rama country, while to a northern source must be attributed certain artistic features exhibited in stone-carving and pottery. Whether the Mexican or Maya was re- sponsible for the latter is uncertain, but I am inclined to think that both were laid under contribution. We know, at any rate, that a branch of the Nahuatl- speaking peoples penetrated into the country, but the art of the pottery is probably Chorotegan, for reasons connected with burial-customs ; and, since that pottery is found in regions later occupied by the Nicarao, it must antedate their immigration. If that is so, it may be that the Maya region was the source whence the artistic inspiration of the Chorotega was drawn. As for the technique of the pottery, certain similarities to that of the highland region of central Costa Rica are obvious, as will be seen later, where vases of the painted variety of the second class are common. If the painted pottery, then, betrays Maya influence, what of the 70 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY monolithic statues ? It must be said that nothing seems to connect them with the pottery, as far as our present knowledge extends, and the fact that they are limited to the area subsequently occupied by the Nicarao and its immediate borders may be significant. What does appear clearly from the evidence at our dis- posal is that the culture of this regioii as a whole forms a connecting link between that to the north and that to the south now to be described, but, as far as the north is concerned, it is impossible at present to specify with any degree of certainty the different factors which have influenced it in this or that direction. CHAPTER IV.— CENTRAL COSTA RICA THE region next to be considered includes both the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the highlands of Costa Rica immediately south of the area peopled by the Rama and Guatuso, and east of the Orotinan territory. The southern boundary, as far as it is possible to determine at present, is formed roughly by a line extending due eastward across the Isthmus from the volcano Herradura. This region may be divided into two, by a line running east and west and pass- ing a trifle to the south of the volcano known as Los Votos. In the northern section lived the Voto and Suere tribes, concerning whose archaeology practically nothing is known ; while the southern district was peopled by the Guetar. These tribes appear to have spoken kindred dialects, but the exact relationship of their languages is a matter of some doubt. It seems * probable, however, from the meagre information at our disposal, that the speech of this region belonged to the same family as those of the tribes to the south, and must therefore be credited with South American affinities. Very little is known of these tribes from literary sources, and we are dependent almost entirely upon the spade for a knowledge of their culture. What little we do know seems to indicate that their manner of life did not in all probabiHty differ much from that of the Rama. From the stone carvings which have been dis- covered, we may assume that the men at any rate 71 72 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY went nude except perhaps for a low conical hat. From Benzoni we know that the Suere assumed body-paint of red and black, at all events in times of war, and wore diadems of brilliant feathers. The stone carvings also show that the Guetar wore rather large studs in the lobes of their ears, and shell beads have been dis- covered in the ancient cemeteries. Of nose-ornaments and lip-studs however there is no trace. From the number of metates which the early cemeteries have yielded we may conclude that agriculture was practised to some extent, and that maize was cultivated, while we are told that the natives of this region were not given to cannibalism. This fact would seem to show that their religion had not been modified to any extent by Mexican influences, though the obvious importance of the crocodile and jaguar in art, both of which animals held an important place in the religious sym- bolism of the Mexican and Maya peoples, may perhaps indicate that their beliefs were not entirely uninfluenced by the higher cultures further north. Of their weapons we know practically nothing, save that they were able to throw stones with such force as to batter a Spanish helmet, and that they sounded shell 'trumpets and drums previous to an attack. The stone axes which have been found are probably implements rather than weapons, and in all probability their chief arm of offence was the bow. Of their houses equally little is known, but it would seem probable that stone entered to some slight extent into the construction of their dwellings. Numbers of small circles of unworked stones are found in certain localities, beneath which no graves have been revealed by excavation. It is probable that these circles mark the site of former dwellings, the walls of which may have been constructed" of stones or based upon a stone foun- dation. But nothing of this nature is mentioned in the early literature. What we know from the latter source CENTRAL COSTA RICA 73 seems to indicate that the buildings, at any rate of the Suere, were similar rather to those o£ the Chorotega. We are told, for instance, that on the River Pacuare in Suere territory a house was seen which was occupied by the Cacique when he came there to fish. This was a long oval building, 45 paces long and 9 wide, the walls constructed of reeds and the roof of palm-branches " remarkably well interlaced." Concerning the burial customs of the Guetar people history is silent, and we are dependent on archaeological research alone. In contradistinction to .the tribes of western Nicaragua, the people of this region did not deposit the remains of their dead in urns, but in stone- lined graves, situated sometimes well beneath the surface of the ground, sametimes in artificial mounds or platforms. Variations occur in the type of grave within the Guetar area, though they seem to be of no significance but dictated merely by the material at the disposal of the different settlements. Thus on the Atlantic side, at Mercedes and neighbouring ceme- teries, the graves are rectangular pits, walled with water-worn stones, and roofed and floored with flat slabs. On the Pacific side — and this includes the majority of the burial-grounds in which investigations have been carried out — they are rectangular, con- structed entirely of slabs, though the floor is not always paved. The explanation of the difference in type seems to lie in the fact that stone slabs were not easily procurable bv the tribes at the former localities. At Santiago, east of Cartago, another type of grave has been discovered. Here Hartman opened an oval mound, which was found to contain burials of two varieties ; in the eastern half of the mound were graves of the normal rectangular type, lined with slabs (Fig. 18^), while the western half was occupied by oval or circular graves, with rounded bottoms, lined with cobbles (Fig. jSa) ; in the soil above, each 74 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY was a layer of similar cobbles, which however did not form a continuous roof. Both kinds of grave contained pottery and other remains of the same type. A variation of the slab-lined grave has been discovered on the west side of the Cartago valley. Here the slabs which formed the walls were square cut and not much larger than the size of an ordinary brick, while the roof and flooring were composed of slabs of the normal dimensions. The shape of these graves was rect- angular. Not far from San Jose, Hartman discovered two small cemeteries in which not only were the graves Fig. i8. — Guetar graves ; Santiago, Costa Rica (the dotted lines represent the position of the cover-slabs). After Hartman. of a distinct pattern, but the accompanying pottery differed rather in type from that found elsewhere. These graves were marked by no external indication on the surface of the ground, and the only sign of their presence was constituted by pottery fragments re- vealed by the rains. Three or four feet down, frag- ments of large tripod vases were discovered " in extra- ordinary profusion," scattered through the soil. These had evidently been broken purposely over the burials, which occupied a lower position. No stone cists of any kind were found, and the shape of the graves could not be determined. Practically the only signs of the burials were the pots and bowls which had been de- posited in unbroken condition with the bodies, and a PLATE VI NICARAGUA i. S'lONE BOWL, Mosquito Coast COSTA RICA 2, 3. Stone figure ; Guetar (Scale : I, 1/8 ; 2, 3, i/8th) British Ahisemii CENTRAL COSTA RICA 75 few stone celts and club-heads (the latter evidently o£ Nicoyan origin) which also shared the last resting-place of their former owner. As stated before, many of the graves are situated in mounds. For instance, at Mercedes a circular platform was found to contain graves of the local type, while, besides the mound at Santiago, platforms containing graves were discovered at Orosi, south-east of Cartago, and mounds at Los Limones, to the south of the last- named. Sometimes there is no external evidence of a burial, but in many cases the surface of the ground is marked by a ring of stones. The limits of a cemetery are usually indicated by a stone enclosure. The burial- grounds are generally crowded, and an interesting cemetery was discovered at Chircot, north of Orosi, in which there were no less than three layers of burials. The lowest layer, which contained 35 burials, was divided in three groups ; the second, 59 graves, was similarly distributed, but each group overlapped the lower; the topmost burials, which numbered III, were evenly distributed. There were thus no less than 205 graves in an oval cemetery of about 20 by 15 metres. In one case five small cists were found under a common roof. The remains throughout the ceme- tery were absolutely homogeneous. Skeletal remains are very rare in the Guetar cists, owing to the dampness of the soil. Occasionally, how- ever, bones have been found, the position of which proves that the bodies, at any rate in the larger graves, were buried lying on the back in an extended position. But many of the cists are too small to contain a body at full length, and in these cases the corpse must have been arranged in a contracted posture ; some indeed are so small that they seem almost to point to the occasional practice of secondary burial. It may be added that the graves as found are invariably filled with soil. -](> CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY Apart from the burial mounds and platforms, stone- faced mounds and walls have been found, but not in great number. Hartman describes an interesting series at Mercedes. This series consisted of a prin- cipal mound in the shape of a truncated cone, and a number of walls, or low embankments, to one of which a smaller mound was attached. The larger mound was built on a foundation of river-stones, and apparently provided with a similar facing. I say " apparently," for excavation showed that the facing .had been built up first in the form of a circular containing wall, and the interior space had been filled subsequently with earth. The mound and embankments here are the most elaborate constructional works which have been discovered in this area, though remains in similar style have been found elsewhere in the neighbourhood. The Guetar, who, like the Chorotega, must have been dependent on stone tools, produced a large number of sculptures of a rather rude type, though they attempted nothing on the scale of the monolithic pillars found on Zapatera and elsewhere in the region last described. Hartman found two well-carved male figures at Mercedes, which originally must have stood on the large mound. These, like the other Guetar figures, were nude, though they wore conical caps, one of which was elaborately carved with figures of alli- gators. Similar figures, usually male, have been found elsewhere, though of inferior workmanship ; one, in jaguar form, is shown on PI. VL Small squatting figures, with the arms clasped round the knees, or the fists touching the chin, have often been found in the Guetar Country, and are quite characteristic of this region. From the artistic point of view Guetar sculp- ture is rude and stiff, the figures present no indivi- duality, and the hands and feet are clumsily modelled. Many of the defects, however, must be due to the material, which is invariably a hard and rather coarse- CENTRAL COSTA RICA -j-j grained lava. One of Hartman's most interesting discoveries was the site of an early stone-mason's work- shop, where the ground was littered with figures and fragments of figures in all stages of preparation. The best examples of Guetar art in stone are pro- vided by their vessels, stools and metates. Stone vessels are rare, but a few examples are known in the form of a beaker with expanding foot, the latter usually carved in open-work. Between the stools and metates it is not easy to distinguish ; the classification is quite arbitrary, and it may be that all are really metates, especially as the surface of many of the so- called stools exhibits traces of wear. The stools are circular and of several patterns. One is cylindrical, with slightly concave " seat," fringed with a row of small heads in relief (like Plate III, i) ; in another the seat is supported on an open-work ring-base, carved in a number of small caryatid figures of jaguars or monkeys (PL VII, 5). In yet another type, the support for the seat is in the form of a single hollow expanding foot, usually carved with ornamental slits (PL VII, 4). The metates consist of an oval plate furnished with a raised rim and supported on legs. The most typical pattern is carved in the form of a jaguar (PL VII, 2), and except on the upper and under sides of the plate is ornamented all over with well-finished designs. These usually consist of formal patterns, representing no doubt the markings on the animal's fur, and often the artist indulges a taste for realism by indicating the pads beneath the creature's foot. Another pattern is one in which each pair of legs is connected by a cross-bar, which is connected with the grinding-plate by a small human face (PL VII, i). Other specimens, usually with three short legs, were found which are quite plain. Owing to the presence of the raised rim in the Guetar metate, a long rubbing-stone of the Nicaraguan type could not be used. The rubbing-stone, therefore, was 78 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY a short broad fragment, more or less oval in section, and often showing a flattening, due to use, on one side. One " stirrup "-shaped pestle, of the Nicoyan type (see Fig. loa, p. 58) was found hy Hartman at Orosi. The labour of carving these elaborate stools and metates from the solid block must have been enormous, especi- ally as the sculptor had onlystone tools at his disposal. It is worth while noting that the Guetar metates, while differing entirely in type from those of the Chorotega, are exactly similar to the specimens found in the Chiriqui area to the south. Stone axe- or adze-blades have been found in con- siderable numbers, and the commonest forms are shown in Fig. iga and c. Some are polished all over, others merely chipped, while others again have been only partially ground, so that traces of the original flaking are clearly visible. Narrow chisels of polished stone, similar to those of Jamaica (see Fig. ^^a, p. 235) have also been found, as well as a couple or so of chipped " eared " celts, of a type extremely rare north of Ecuador (where, however, such axes are well polished). A peculiar type of axe is exemplified in a " waisted " pattern, similar to some occasionally found in Nicoya, but often provided with scalloped edge (Fig. 19^). These are partially polished, and must have been pro- vided with a haft by bending a pliant twig round the " waist," and securing the ends by a lashing below. Hartman found at Orosi a small stone figure holding behind his back what appears to be one of these double axes. It is interesting to note that Hartman in a grave at Orosi found several glass beads of the well-known " chevron " pattern which are obviously European in origin. This does not mean that the possessor with whom they were buried had ever met a white man, since beads pass readily from hand to hand and travel enormous distances from their place of origin. All PLATE VI II CENTRAL COSTA RICA 79 that can be concluded from their presence is that Guetar culture was in full flower at the time that the Spaniards landed on the coast of America. The Guetar cemeteries are rich in pottery, which is found in or close to the graves. Two main types occur, Fig. ig. — Guetar celts ; San Isirfro. British Museum. Scale ij. a superior class of ware with well-burnished slip on which various designs are painted, and an inferior class, which depends in the main on applied and moulded details for its ornamentation. The latter type is by far the more common and at the same time the more typical of the area. As will be seen, the inferior pottery is sometimes furnished with a red or crimson slip, and occasionally 8o CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY with rudely-painted designs in white, or ornamental bands in crimson, but decoration of this nature is almost invariably secondary to the ornamentation in relief. , An intermediate class, by no means common, is con- stituted by vases of a ware which, though thinner and more homogeneous than that of the pots with relief decoration, is not of the quality of the painted type. The decoration is usually painted, though occasionally moulded details appear. The paste of the inferior and most characteristic ware varies in colour from red or reddish brown to chocolate. It is always rather coarse, though fairly well mixed, and contains an appreciable quantity of sand. On the whole the firing is more or less complete, though a dark line is often apparent at the heart of a fracture. The pots are rather heavy and brittle, and the walls are not very thin, though there is considerable variation in this respect. The coarsest and by far the thickest ware has been discovered in two small ceme- teries near San Jose, and, since also it presents certain minor peculiarities of ornament, it has been named by Hartman " Curridabat " ware, from the small native village near which it was discovered. In most cases the surface of the relief-ware has been fairly well burnished, though the marks of the burnisher are plainly visible, and sometimes a red or bright orange slip has been added. The shapes in which the early potter moulded the vases of this class are varied (see Pis. VIII-XI). A convenient classifica- tion would be threefold, tripod vases, round-bottomed vases, and vases with flat bottoms or a single ex- panding foot. The first and second varieties are closely akin, the forms differing only in the presence or absence of the feet. The commonest shape of body perhaps is a depressed sphere, with a short neck crowned with a thick lip, or with a thinner everted lip CENTRAL COSTA RICA 8i rising directly from the body. Handles are often present, usually paired, and connecting the lip with the body, though occasionally they are placed on the shoulders of the vase. Transverse handles are less common. As a whole handles vary from ribbon-like loops to mere pierced lugs, which degenerate further into knobs, while the loop-handle itself frequently adopts some animal form, jaguar or monkey. Occa- sionally a single loop-handle is seen, but the projecting conical form, such as appears on the vase in PI. VIII, 5, is extremely uncommon. In rare cases the single handle extends across the mouth of the pot, from shoulder to shoulder, like the handle of a basket. Such a specimen is shown on PL VIII, 3. Often the body assumes an ovoid shape, such as the large vase on PI. X, 2, while beakers, often with slightly incurving sides, are not uncommon. Bottle-forms, however, are rare. Tripod bowls and shallow dishes are common, the bodies varying in shape from hemispherical to depressed beaker-forms, as may be seen in Pis. VIII and IX. The legs of the tripod class are invariably hollow, and sometimes furnished with two or more slits or holes. In such cases they usually contain a small loose clay pellet and so form rattles. Where the body of the vase is of the globular variety these legs are more commonly simple conical projections, but in the ovoid vases, the beakers and the bowls, they are often elabor- ately moulded and furnished with applied details. In such cases they assume the form of girotesque snouty heads (Pis. VIII, 6, and IX, 4), animal-masks (PI. IX, l), or entire animal or human figures (PL IX, 2). The ornamentation of the tripod vases and the round-bottomed variety consists in the main of details applied in relief, a smaller percentage of moulded ornament, and sometimes incised patterns. The latter are simple geometrical forms with occasional animal- motives, and appear most frequently on the pots made of 82 CENTRAL AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY chocolate-coloured paste ; the incisions are frequently filled with a pale-coloured clay which brings out the pattern against the dark paste of the vase (PI. VIII, 2). The most frequent form of relief ornament consists in applied lines and dots forming a human face or the figure of an animal, such as a monkey, jaguar, bird or alligator. The latter is a common feature of the Curridabat pots, and occurs in all stages of conven- tionalization. In the most naturalistic forms this animal is shown with scales or " scutes " consisting of series of knobs, or discs with an oval depression in the centre. In the more conventionalized manifestations the alligator degenerates into a mere series of lines of such knobs or discs, and, at a further stage, the discs themselves coalesce so as to form punctuated lines (e.g. PL VIII, 7), and the punctuated line is perhaps the most characteristic form of relief ornamentation on pottery of this class throughout the Guetar area, either arranged in series or constituting the outline of a grotesque face or animal figure. Sometimes the bodies of the vases are furnished with one or more ornamental knobs, usually moulded in the form of an animal's head (Pis. VIII, 6, and IX, 2), and occasionally other knobs are added which represent legs or wings and tail (e.g. PI. IX, 3, and Fig. zo a and £). The vase then becomes a single zoomorphic unit, and presents the appearance of a complete animal or human being, but vessels of this type are not common. The rims of pots are frequently provided with an ornamental row of small projections, each of which represents a more or less degenerate grotesque face (PI. VIII, 6). Apart from knobs,' moulded decoration is by no means common. Even the knobs, like the legs, have in nearly all cases been formed separately and attached to the body of the vases by slip. The above description of the tripod vases applies also to the rpund-bottpmed class ; it need only be PLATE < U) < > r 1