Page:Nicaraguan Antiquities (1886).djvu/29



might be arranged with the Niquirans. It is evident that the ground-plan of the edifice has been a broad oval, and it is highly probable, on account of the back of the statues not being elaborated, but only roughly cut, that it has not been open, but enclosed by walls, the statues serving as pilasters. However, it must be admitted that this latter circumstance is far from being proved. The figures A and B, being larger than the others in the periphery, and more deeply fixed in the ground, may possibly have stood at each side of the entrance or perhaps of a flight of steps, leading up into the temple. The roof was probably supported by a plate of stone or wood, carrying light rafters, covered with palm-leaves or such like materials.

This mound, also oval, was much smaller than mound 1; its longer diameter was eighteen meters, the shorter twelve. It was situated due E. of 1, separated from it by a depression in the ground, ten to twelve meters in breadth, and was made up of more or less irregular stones. It is impossible to decide whether this mound has also been surrounded by a series of statues, and in such a case, by which, because even those statues which were found in the neighborhood of it, did not remain in situ, but were overthrown, and more or less broken. The same was also the case with the four remaining stone-mounds. Thus I shall only briefly indicate their situations, and then return to the description of the statues in the order that they were measured and delineated.

It was situated due S. of mound 2, and held rather the same dimensions, but it was less symmetrical in form. Near it only R and R 1, two large stone-slabs, lids, or parts of a wall, ornamented with human figures in high-relief, were found.