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Rh and at Cuicatlan, though at the latter locality they are made in black ware. An interesting characteristic of Totonac pottery ornamentation is seen in more or less naturalistic painted designs, usually in yellow and brown slip, representing animals, such as the Mexican porcupine, the coati, monkeys, snakes, bats, lizards and insects. Quantities of fragments of pottery figurines occur throughout the Totonac area. These are made of a ware inferior to that of the vases, and though the treatment of the bodies and limbs is apt to be clumsy, yet the faces are modelled with considerable skill. Many of the details are applied, such as head-dresses, sandal ties and the like; the teeth are often shown filed to a point, or even mutilated in characteristic Maya fashion. The last peculiarity emphasizes the general resemblance which these figurines bear to those of British Honduras.

The pottery of the Totonac has been investigated carefully by Strebel, who distinguishes several local types within the area. In a general work of this nature it is impossible to deal at length with minor variations, and it will be sufficient to state that the careful investigations of this archeologist seem to indicate four culture centres for the coastal region between the rivers Nautla and Papaloapan. The two first are in the north, and close together, and are associated respectively with sites at Cerro Montoso (E.N.E. of Jalapa, near the coast) and Ranchito de las Animas (immediately N.E. of the last). At the former of these the style is akin to and influenced by the neighbouring highlands and the district beyond, while the latter is probably more purely aboriginal. The two second lie to the south, one including the Rio de Cotaxla, the other extending thence to the Rio Papaloapan.

The pottery of the Huaxtec (Figs. 42-44) is peculiar from more than one point of view. The paste of the most characteristic specimens is hard and well-fired,