Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/314

 3O2 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920

no new stairways have been discovered on important pyramids since 1895 and all chief- examples known, which are cited above, show the single stairway.

It is obvious that an analogy based on a resemblance between southeastern Asiatic pyramids with four stairways and obscure excep- tional examples of similar American structures is valueless and misleading and out of place in a handbook.

The same must be said of the second analogy Prof. Holmes points out: " Temple walls in both countries are . . . surmounted by roof crests, cupolas of elaborate and even pagodalike design."

What documentary or archaeological evidence is known which shows that ancient Middle American builders ever constructed cupolas, i.e., " hemispherical'or semi-elliptical vaults on the tops of circular buildings? "

Under the sub-title "Whiskered Men in Yucatan" (also on page 26) Prof. Holmes points out a third analogy of an extremely doubtful character, which will remain so until he can produce proof that the so- called "whiskers" are not parts of ceremonial masks or headdresses.

It is indeed a pity that, when real and equally striking analogies between Central America and Cambodia, Burmah, and India do exist, those pointed out in the Handbook should require either substantiation or revision as do also other assertions scattered throughout the pages of what should be a standard reference book.

On page 126 the reader is informed that " the greatest of the American pyramids" (that of Cholula) "is 200 feet in height and 1400 feet square at the base . . . and is now occupied by a Catholic Cathedral." The truth is that the pyramid is surmounted by a church, the only cathedral in the state and diocese of Pueblo being the magnificent one in the city of Puebla, which is 323 feet long and 101 feet wide. According to the careful measurements made by A. F. Bandelier in 1881, quoted by Thomas P. Janvier in his guide, the lines of the base of the pyramid, including their irregular windings, measure are as follows: north line, 1,000 feet; east line, 1,026 feet; south line, 833 feet; west line, 1,000 feet. . . . The length of the upper plateau from east to west is approximately 203 feet; and its length from north to south, 144 feet. There is a steep ascent with a vertical rise of 71 H feet to the first terrace and a second with a vertical rise of 66 feet to the summit, making a total vertical rise of 137^ feet. It would be interesting to know on whose authority Prof. Holmes bases the exaggerated measurements he records. It cannot but also cause regret that at this more advanced stage of archaeological know- ledge Prof. Holmes should hark back to the fancied resemblance between

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