Identifier: biologiacentrali01maud (find matches)
Title: Biologia Centrali-Americana, or, Contributions to the knowledge of the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America
Year: 1889 (1880s)
Authors: Maudslay, Alfred Percival, 1850-1931 Goodman, J. T Godman, Frederick Du Cane, 1834-1919 Salvin, Osbert, 1835-1898 Greve, W., lithographer Griggs, William, 1832-1911 Hunter, Ada Purkiss, W., lithographer Shawe, W Sweet, H. N. (Henry N.)
Subjects: Mayas Indians of Mexico Indians of Central America Mayas Indians of Mexico Indians of Central America Inscriptions, Mayan Maya calendar
Publisher: London : Published for the editors by R.H. Porter ... and Dulau & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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important, and before commencing a detailed description of the monumentsit is thought advisable to give a few examples (Plates XXIII. and XXIV.) of the manyvarieties of ornament derived from the serpents head and the scroll-work attached to it.There are, so far as I have observed, no really natural representations of a serpentto be found in the Central-American sculptures. Serpent-worship had probably long-antedated the development of Central-American art into the condition in which anyexamples of it remain to us, and the serpents of the sculptures have already passedthrough a stage of exaggeration and conventionalism. Small heads of snakes drawnnaturally may, however, be seen throughout the period of the greatest exaggerationattached as ornaments to the ends of stringa or narrow bands, such as the thongs of asandal, or the bands of the breastplates in Plate VIII.; but in this particular case therattles of the tail are drawn as a conventional ornament at the sides of the breastplate.
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Stone Mask fhom Mexico, now in tee British Museum. /2 36 COPAN. Stela A. (Plates XXV. to XXX., see also Plate IV., a and b.)(Compare Stephenss Central America, vol. i. p. 158.) Height 11 feet 6 inches. Average breadth 3 feet *. This monument (A, Plate I.) stands in the Great Plaza on the north side of thedetached mound (No. 4, Plate I.) and faces the east. As is usually the case, the baseof the monument has been surrounded by four large blocks of stone, now somewhatbroken and displaced. A portion of the sculpture on the lower part of the monumenthas been damaged by fire, and the surface of the stone has flaked off, but the rest ofthe carving, although considerably weatherworn, is in a fair state of preservation. The want of proper proportion in the representation of the human body is con-spicuous in the principal figure carved on the front of this Stela. The body is far tooshort for the size of the head and limbs. The face is beardless; the mouth slightlyopen, showing the teeth. The n

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