The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1903-09-18
VANISHED RELIGION
INTERESTING RELICS FOUND IN
SOUTHERN MEXICO.
Show Artistic Excellence That Is ST.
pe rior to the Work Of the Egyptians
-HierogIyphics That Can Not BE
Deciphsred.

Among the reliefs photographed oy
Herr Toeber Mailer during his trips up
the Usumatsintha river, in southern
Mexico and Northern Guatemala, are
carvings of gods or priests holding III
the right hand a short staff which ENDS
below in a snakes head and seems 10
support a small idol with a peculiar
snout, or it may be merely a monkey
If monkey, certainly it is convention
allied enough. The attitude is gener'
ally one of offering something to a de-
ity. but not always. The manikins
usually have miniature head dresses
with bushy plumes like the gods and
priests and warriors; perhaps tney
wear masks having long noses or
shouts.
A Intel found at Yaschilan appears
to represent an interview between the
god Quetzalcoatl and his priest. In the
right hand of the god there is the
curved stick or support ending in a
snakes head, and this stick seems to
connect with a belt round the waist
OF the small figure. The latter has
anklets, wristlets, tight-fitting, pat
termed clothes, or perhaps merely
decorations like tatooing on the limbs.
The oldest thing of all is the fact that
the priest has a manikin almost ldentl
cal which he holds up to the gods
manikin, so that they seem to be
shaking hands or boxing with each
other with raised hands. The effect
is that of two pigmies or monkeys
wearing masks held by broad girdles,
and these supported by curving slaves.
In this sculpture Q~uetzalcoatl has a
helmet and plumes nearly as high as
himself, composed of the convention.
allied head Of a serpent and the COR
geous feathers Of the quetzal. He has
what seems a transverse nose orna.
ment, necklaces, a shoulder decoration
or cape with medallions having faces,
a broad breast ornament, a still broad
err girdle with three large mask deco.
rations, a skirt Of sea shells and a long
f1amboyant girdle pendant falling al
most to the ground between his feet
About opposite his thighs, which are
partly bare, this pendant takes the
shape of a ford cross. All the spaces
not occupied by the two large and two
small figures are filled with hero.
glyphs no one has yet deciphered,
Purely as decorations these glypha
surpass anything known in other parts
of the world. Those carved by the
Egyptians, for example, are certainly
handsome, and are technically more
polished work, but in artistic effective
ness they must yield the palm to these
mysterious records of by-gone civiliza
tons, owing to the symmetrical round,
ed forms of the latter and the solid
ranks which are massed In varied
squares. These afford a most pleasing
contrast to the sweeping plumes OF
the headdresses and the ornaments
suspended from the collars and girdles
of the figures.
When n imagines these extraordi
nary clever carvings, brilliant with col
ors, and the priests performing thei,
solemn dances around the affairs, will
the idol standing or squatted in thu
dim niche behind, one can understand
the power Of this race of warriors and
artists must have exercised over thu
population that once animated one Of
the most fertile regions Of Mexico and
Guatemala.-New York Times.