Chapter II (2)

The fifth class embraces all articles of pottery, abundant throughout the whole extent of the state, but especially so on the lake islands, where the natives actually dig them from the earth to supply their present needs. None of the localities which have yielded other relics is without its deposit of earthen ware, either whole or in fragments. The fact that vessels unearthed by the natives, when unbroken, are wholly uninjured by their long rest under a damp tropical soil, indicates their excellence in material and construction. It is not indeed probable that in material or methods of manufacture the ancient differed essentially from the modern pottery; but in skill and taste the former was unquestionably far superior. Mr Squier pronounces the work equal to the best specimens of the Mexican and Peruvian potters. He finds no evidence of the use of the wheel; Mr Boyle, however, thinks it was employed, but rarely. The clay varies from brown to black, and the glazing, often sufficiently thick to be chipped off with a knife, is usually of a whitish or yellowish hue. The colors with which most articles are painted are both brilliant and durable, red being a favorite. In some cases the paint seems to have penetrated the substance of the pottery, as if applied before the clay was dry. The figures of the cut illustrate the two most common forms of the cinerary, or burial, urns, both from Ometepec, the former sketched by Mr Boyle and the latter by Mr Squier. The urns contain a black sticky earth supposed to represent traces of burned flesh, and often unburned bones, skull, or teeth, together with a collection of the smaller relics which have been described. The bones of animals, deer-horns, and boar-tusks, and bone implements rarely or never occur. Earthen basins of different material and color from the urns are often--always in the Chontal graves--found inverted one over another to close the mouth. The burial vases are sometimes thirty-six inches long by twenty inches high, painted usually on the outside with alternate streaks of black and scarlet, while serpents or other ornaments are frequently relieved on the surface. One or two handles are in most cases attached to each. Mr Squier believes a human skull to have been the model of the urns. Five of them at Libertad are noticed as lying uniformly east and west. It appears evident that many of the articles found in or about the graves had no connection with burial rites, some of them having undoubtedly been buried to keep them from the hands of the Spaniards. The figures of the cuts, from Mr Boyle, show two forms of vessels which are frequently repeated among an infinite variety of other shapes. The tripod vase with hollow legs is a common form, of which Fig. 1 is a fine specimen from Ometepec, five and three fourths inches high, and six inches in diameter, with a different face on each leg. Fig. 2 is a bowl from Zapatero which occurs in great numbers, of uniform shape and decoration, but of varying size, being ordinarily, however, ten inches in diameter and four and one fourth inches high. Both inside and outside are painted with figures which from their uniformity in different specimens are deemed by Mr Boyle to have some hidden hieroglyphic meaning. It is also remarked that vessels intended to be of the same size are exactly equal in every respect. Another common vessel is a black jar, glazed and polished, about four inches high and five and one fourth inches in diameter, made of light clay, and having a simple wavy ornament round the rim. Animals or parts of animals, particularly alligators, often form a part of the ornamentation of pottery, but complete animals in clay are rare, a rude clay stag being the only relic of the kind reported. The device of a beast springing on the back of a human form, so frequent among the statues or idols, also occurs in terra cotta. The four figures of the cut show additional specimens in terra cotta from Mr Squier, of which Fig. 2 is from Ometepec.[II-64]

[Sidenote: RELICS OF THE USE OF METALS.]

It only remains to speak of the sixth and last class of Nicaraguan relics; viz., articles of metal, which may be very briefly disposed of. The only gold seen by any of our authorities was "a drop of pure gold, one inch long, precisely like the rattles worn by Malay girls," taken by Mr Boyle from a cinerary vase at Juigalpa. But all others mention small gold idols and ornaments which are reported to have been found, one of them weighing twenty-four ounces; so that there can be but little doubt that the ancient people understood to a limited extent the use of this precious metal, which the territory has never produced in large quantities. Copper, on the contrary, is said to be abundant and of a variety easily worked, and yet the only relic of this metal discovered is the copper mask, which Mr Squier supposes to represent a tiger's face, shown in the cut. It was presented to him by a man who claimed to have obtained it from Ometepec. Mr Boyle believes, with reason as I think, that in a country abounding in the metal, the skill and knowledge requisite to produce the mask would most certainly have left other evidences of its possession. The authenticity of this mask, when considered as a Nicaraguan relic, may be regarded as extremely problematical.[II-65]

Nicaraguan antiquities, concerning which I have now given all the information in my possession, give rise to but little discussion or visionary speculation. Indeed there is little of the mysterious connected with them, as they do not necessarily carry us farther back into the past than the partially civilized people that occupied the country in the sixteenth century. Not one relic has appeared which may not reasonably be deemed their work, or which requires the agency of an unknown nation of antiquity. Yet supposing Nicaragua to have been long inhabited by a people of only slightly varying stages of civilization, any one of the idols described may have been worshiped thousands of years before the Spanish conquest. The relics are over three hundred years old; nothing in themselves proves them to be less than three thousand. Comparison with more northern relics and history may fix their age within narrower limits.

FOOTNOTES:

[II-1] A general view of South American antiquities is given in another chapter of this volume.

[II-2] I might except a Roman coin of the time of Cæsar Augustus, and a buried ship, or galley, of antique model, said to have been discovered in early times by the Spaniards in the vicinity of Panamá, and which figured somewhat largely in early speculations on the question of American origin. I need not say that the evidence for the authenticity of such a discovery is extremely unsatisfactory. See: _García_, _Orígen de los Ind._, p. 174, with quotation from _Marineo_, _Sumario_, (Toledo, 1546,) fol. 19--apparently the original authority in the matter--and a reference to other editions and works; _Solórzano Pereyra_, _De Ind. Jure_, tom. i., p. 93; _Id._ _Política Ind._, tom. i., p. 22; _Horn_, _Orig. Amer._, p. 13; _Simon_, _Noticias Historiales_, (Cuença, 1626,) lib. i., cap. x.

[II-3] Authorities on the Isthmian antiquities are not numerous. Mr Berthold Seemann claims to have been the first to discover stone sculptures near David in 1848, and he read a paper on them before the Archæological Institute of London in 1851. He also briefly mentions them in his _Voy. Herald_, vol. i., pp. 312-13, for which work drawings were prepared but not published. Some of the drawings were, however, afterwards printed in _Bollaert's Antiq. Researches in N. Granada_, (Lond., 1860,) and a few cuts of inscribed figures also inserted with farther description by Seemann in _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, pp. 25-32. It is stated in the last-named work that M. Zeltner, French Consul at Panamá, whose private collection contained specimens from Chiriquí, published photographs of some of them with descriptive letter-press. Bollaert also wrote a paper on 'The Ancient Tombs of Chiriquí,' in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. ii., pp. 151, 159. On various occasions from 1859 to 1865, travelers or residents on the Isthmus, chiefly parties connected with the Panamá railway, sent specimens, drawings, and descriptions to New York, where they were presented to the American Ethnological Society, or exhibited before and discussed by that body at its monthly meetings, an account of which may be found in the _Hist. Mag._, vol. iii., p. 240, vol. iv., pp. 47-8, 113, 144, 176-7, 239-41, 274, 338, vol. v., pp. 50-2, vol. vi., pp. 119, 154, vol. ix., p. 158. A report on the Chiriquí antiquities by Dr Merritt was printed by the same society. The above, with slight mentions in _Cullen's Darien_, p. 38, from _Whiting and Shuman's Report on Coal Formations_, April 1, 1851, and in _Bidwell's Isthmus_, pp. 37-8, from _Hay's Report_, in _Powles' N. Granada_, are the only sources of information on the subject with which I am acquainted.

[II-4] _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, pp. 25, 28-31; _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. i., pp. 312-13; _Hist. Mag._, vol. iv., p. 338.

[II-5] _Hist. Mag._, vol. ix., p. 158.

[II-6] _Id._, vol. iii., p. 240, vol. iv., pp. 47-8, 239-40.

[II-7] Three statues presented by Messrs Totten and Center in 1860 were about two feet high, of a dark, hard stone, in human form with features and limbs distorted. Two of them had square tapering pedestals apparently intended to support the figures upright in the ground. _Id._, vol. iv., p. 144.

[II-8] _Id._, vol. iv., pp. 239-40, 274.

[II-9] _Hist. Mag._, vol. iv., pp. 144, 177, 240-1, 274.

[II-10] _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. i., p. 314.

[II-11] _Cullen's Darien_, p. 38.

[II-12] _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, pp. 25-32; _Tate's Ancient British Sculptured Rocks_.

[II-13] _Bidwell's Isthmus_, p. 37; _Hist. Mag._, vol. iv., p. 176.

[II-14] 'A much higher antiquity must be assigned to these hieroglyphics than to the other monuments of America.' _Voy. Herald_, vol. i., p. 313.

[II-15] _Hist. Mag._, vol. v., p. 50.

[II-16] Vol. i., chap. vii. of this work.

[II-17] _Merritt and Davis_, in _Hist. Mag._, vol. iv., pp. 176, 274.

[II-18] In a work which I have not seen. That author's _Coup d'Œuil sur la République de Costa Rica_, and _Memoir on the Boundary Question_, furnish no information on the subject.

[II-19] _Wagner and Scherzer_, _Costa Rica_, pp. 465-6, 471, 522-4, 561.

[II-20] _Squier's Nicaragua_, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., pp. 338-9, and plate.

[II-21] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., p. 86; _Hist. Mag._, vol. vi., p. 119.

[II-22] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 25-6.

[II-23] _Meagher_, in _Harper's Mag._, vol. xx., p. 317.

[II-24] _Reichardt_, _Cent. Amer._, pp. 121-2.

[II-25] _Squier's Nicaragua_, p. 511.

[II-26] _Pownal_, in _Archæologia_, vol. v., p. 318, pl. xxvi.; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., p. 205, pl. xiii.; (Ed. in folio, pl. xxxix.); _Id._, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. ii., pp. 27-8, tom. ii., suppl. pl. vii., fig. xi.

[II-27] _Colon_, _Carta_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i., p. 307; _Helps' Span. Conq._, vol. ii., p. 138.

[II-28] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 296-9; _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, p. 401.

[II-29] _Bard's (E. G. Squier) Waikna, or Adventures on the Mosquito Shore_, pp. 216-17, 254, 258-60. The 'King of the Mosquitos' somewhat severely criticised the work, in which, by the way, His Royal Highness is not very reverently spoken of, as 'a pack of lies, especially when it was notorious that the author had never visited the Mosquito Coast.' _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, p. 271. 'Le désert qui s'étend le long de la côte de la mer des Antilles, depuis le golfe Dulce jusqu'à l'isthme de Darien, n'a pas offert jusqu'à présent de vestiges indiquant que le peuple auquel on doit les monuments de Palenquè, de Quiragua, de Copan, ait émigré au sud de l'isthme.' _Friederichsthal_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1841, tom. xcii., p. 301.

[II-30] _Squier's Nicaragua_; _Boyle's Ride Across a Continent_. Mr E. G. Squier resided in Nicaragua as Chargé d'Affaires of the United States during the year 1849-50. On account of his position he was afforded facilities for research not enjoyed by other foreigners, and which his well-known antiquarian tastes and abilities prompted and enabled him to use to the best advantage during the limited time left from official duties. Besides the several editions of the work mentioned, Mr Squier's accounts or fragments thereof have been published in periodicals in different languages; while other authors have made up almost wholly from his writings their brief descriptions of Nicaraguan antiquities. See _Wappäus_, _Geog. u. Stat._, p. 341; _Sivers_, _Mittelamerika_, pp. 128-35; _Tiedemann_, in _Heidelberger Yahrb._, 1851, pp. 81, 91, 170; _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 463, 484, 498, 544; _Andree_, in _Westland_, tom. ii., pp. 3, 251; _Heine_, _Wanderbilder_, p. 181; _Holinski_, _La Californie_, p. 252; _Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, p. 124. Frederick Boyle, F.R.G.S., visited the country in 1865-6, with the examination of antiquities as his main object. Both works are illustrated with plates and cuts; and both authors brought away interesting specimens which were deposited by the American in the Smithsonian Institution, and by the Englishman in the British Museum. 'J'avoue n'avoir rien rencontré d'important dans mes lectures, en ce qui touche les états de Costa Rica et de Nicaragua.' _Dally_, _Races Indig._, p. 12.

[II-31] 'Nicht ... von abgesonderten Steinen umgeben, sondern fanden sich, in einer Tiefe von drei Fuss, unregelmässig über die Ebene zerstreut.' _Friederichsthal_, in _Sivers_, _Mittelamerika_, p. 128; 'Les îles du lac, notamment Ométépé semblent avoir servi de sépultures à la population des villes environnantes, ... car on y rencontre de vastes nécropoles ou villes des morts, ressemblant par leur caractère à celles des anciens Mexicains.' _Id._ in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1841, tom. xcii., p. 297; in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 100; _Woeniger_, in _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 509-10; _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., p. 86.

[II-32] Plan showing their relative position, in _Squier's Nicaragua_, p. 477.

[II-33] 'On y trouve (sur les îles du lac) encore un grand nombre de débris de constructions antiques.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlvii., p. 135.

[II-34] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., p. 42.

[II-35] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 439-41.

[II-36] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., pp. 10-11.

[II-37] _Id._, vol. ii., pp. 161-2; _Squier's Nicaragua_, p. 396.

[II-38] 'Ils montrent avec effroi les débris de la cité maudite, encore visibles sous la surface des eaux.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlvii., p. 149.

[II-39] _Belcher's Voyage_, vol. i., p. 171; _Squier's Nicaragua_, p. 299.

[II-40] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 306-8; _Id._, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., p. 335.

[II-41] _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 100; _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1811, tom. xcii., p. 297; _Squier's Nicaragua_, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., p. 335.

[II-42] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 159-61, 195-212, 291; _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, p. 126; On the buildings of the ancient Nicaraguans, see vols. ii. and iii. of this work; also _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 114; _Peter Martyr_, dec. vi., lib. v.; _Squier's Nicaragua_, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., pp. 335-6.

[II-43] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 154-5.

[II-44] _Froebel_, _Aus Amer._, tom. i., pp. 379-80; _Id._, _Cent. Amer._, pp. 119-20.

[II-45] _Livingston_, in _Squier's Nicaragua_, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., pp. 334-5.

[II-46] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., p. 212.

[II-47] _Heine_, _Wanderbilder_, p. 181.

[II-48] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 435-41; 'Sur les parois du rocher on voit encore des dessins bizarres gravés et peints en rouge, tels que les donne M. Squier.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlvii., p. 147.

[II-49] Mr Boyle found the cliff-paintings to have suffered much since Mr Squier's visit, thirteen years before; so much so that none could be made out except the winged snake and red hand. He also states that yellow as well as red pictures are here to be seen. _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., pp. 160-1; _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 391-6. In a letter, a fragment of which is published in the _Annual of Scientific Discovery_, 1850, p. 364, Mr Squier declares the paintings precisely in the style of the Mexican and Guatemalan MSS., closely resembling, some of the figures indeed identical with, those of the Dresden MS. Pim and Seemann, _Dottings_, p. 401, also noted the 'coiled-up lizard' and other pictures, calling the locality Asososca Lake. Scherzer, _Wanderungen_, p. 72, and _Trav._, vol. i., p. 77, mentions also sculptured figures on this crater-wall.

[II-50] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., pp. 142-3.

[II-51] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 510-17. There were formerly many idols resembling those of Zapatero, but they have been buried or broken up. A group is reported still to be found near the foot of Mt Madeira, but not seen. _Woeniger_, in _Id._, p. 509. _Froebel_, _Aus Amer._, tom. i., p. 261.

[II-52] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 180, 470-90, 496; _Id._, (_ed._ 1856,) vol. ii., p. 336; _Id._, in _Annual Scien. Discov._, 1851, p. 388. 'L'île de Zapatero a fourni des idoles qui sont comme des imitations grossières du fameux colosse de Memnon, type connu de cette impassibilité réfléchie que les Égyptiens donnaient à leurs dieux.' _Holinski_, _La Californie_, p. 252. 'There still exist on its surface some large stone idols.' _Scherzer's Trav._, vol. i., p. 31. 'Statues d'hommes et d'animaux d'un effet grandiose, mais d'un travail qui annonce une civilisation moins avancée que celle de l'Yucatan ou du Guatémala.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlvii., p. 135; _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., p. 122.

[II-53] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. ii., pp. 42-7; _Friederichsthal_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 100; _Id._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1841, tom. xcii., p. 297.

[II-54] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 448-57. The head of fig. 1 is the Mexican sign tochtli. The animal in fig. 2 may be intended for an alligator. _Id._, in _Annual Scien. Discov._, 1851, p. 387.

[II-55] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 285-7, 295-301, 402; _Id._, in _Annual Scien. Discov._, 1850, p. 363; _Wappäus_, _Geog. u. Stat._, p. 341.

[II-56] _Belcher's Voyage_, vol. i., p. 172; _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 179, 402.

[II-57] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 264-5, 301-7: 'Some of the statues have the same elaborate head-dresses with others of Copan; one bears a shield upon his arm; another has a girdle, to which is suspended a head.' _Id._, in _Annual Scien. Discov._, 1850, p. 363.

[II-58] If idols, to Mr Boyle they indicate a worship of ancestors, of which, however, there seems to be no historical evidence. Mr Pim suggests that the idols of mild expression may be those worshiped before, and those of more ferocious aspect after, the coming of the Aztecs.

[II-59] The other Chontal statues more or less fully described are the following: A huge monolith, of which twelve feet six inches were unearthed, having a cross on the breast with two triangles, and the arms and legs doubled back; a head four feet eight inches in circumference, and one foot ten inches high; an idol four feet eight inches high, wearing on its head an ornamented coronet, resembling a circlet of overlapping oyster-shells, with a cross on the left shoulder and a richly carved belt; a stone woman thirty-seven inches high, having the left corner of the mouth drawn up so as to leave a round hole between the lips, and the arms crossed at right angles from the elbows; a very rude idol with pointed cap, holes for eyes, and a slit for a mouth, whose modern use is to grind corn; and lastly, a statue with beard and whiskers. _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 147-9, 158-64, 210-12, 242, 290-5; _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, pp. 126-8.

[II-60] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 290-1, vol. ii., pp. 97, 144-5; _Squier's Nicaragua_, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., p. 339; _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, pp. 126-7.

[II-61] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 200-2, 209, vol. ii., pp. 45-6; _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 515, 521; cut of the leg of a stone vase, _Id._, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., p. 339.

[II-62] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 256-7.

[II-63] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 150-2, 159, vol. ii., pp. 43, 98; _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 521-2; _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, pp. 126-7.

[II-64] _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 307-8, 476, 488; _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, p. 128.

[II-64] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 150-1, 201, 209, vol. ii., pp. 45, 86, 90-7; _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 299, 490, 509-10; _Id._, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., pp. 335-8, 362; _Pim and Seemann's Dottings_, p. 126; _Sivers_, _Mittelamerika_, pp. 128-9.

[II-65] _Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., pp. 150-1, vol. ii., p. 87; _Squier's Nicaragua_, pp. 509-11.