only after the most desperate and intermitted resistance retreated before the impenetrable phalanxes of the Spaniards. The ruins lie on the left bank of the river Copan and present features of strength and imposing solidity inconsistent with the trivial reference to its capture made by Spanish historians. The actual extent of the ruins it is impossible to determine, a tangled forest shrouds its outlines, and will forever conceal many of its rarest fragments. Trees, bushes and vines in knotted confusion are slowly pushing down its stone terraces and substantial walls, while storms are corroding into indistinguishable shadows the once bold lineaments of its numerous statues. Terraces, pyramids, 120 ft. on their slope, quadrangles 250 ft. square to which stone steps lead by an easy descent, high walls of hewn stone recesses and enclosures are mentioned by Stephens in the particular area he examined. The whole is designated by him "The Temple," and forms a complicated plan enclosing no complete edifices but strown with sculptures of astonishing power and expression, ornamenting the steps, scattered up and down the terraces, and interspersed with magnificent columns whose sides are fretted with luxuriant alto-reliefs encrusting a central figure, to which they bear some definite relation. These idols (see Figs. 8 and 9) were thirteen feet in height, four feet wide, and three feet. deep, many of them were painted and all profuse in extraordinary details, emblematic insignia, and subsidiary portraiture. Certainly no remains found in all that marvelous district strikes the beholder with more amazement than these stupendous fragments of an art, which for its developement of ideas, formation of its technique, and acquisition of skill demands a long and peculiar history, staggering the imagination with endless questionings. Altars occur in many spots, usually before the great statues, made of single blocks of stone, some almost buried beneath the surface, all badly weathered, in many instances their ornaments obliterated by moss.* On one of these sides are very elegantly inscribed rows of sitting figures while its table like top bears 36 compound hieroglyphics. similar to those seen at Palenque, the whole altar reposing on four stone globes. These statues, altars and sculptures, are made from a soft grit excavated from neighboring quarries and have been probably worked by flint implements, some of which form collections in possession of resident Spaniards. Heads. carved from stone noted by Stephens on the spot as "death heads," were seen throughout the ruins with striking frequency, but resembling closely, as was suggested to Stephens on his return, a monkey's skull. Such simian suggestions recall a curious legend told in the Popol Vuh, an important Maya manuscript, translated by Breboeuf viz: When man was first made it was from the earth, but this inert material refused leavening by any mental, moral or spiritual forces, and it was resolved

into nothing by the waters. A second attempt from wood proved more successful, but this insensible substance produced a torpid and insensate creature, that withered away, and a third effort, using the tzite tree, resulted in another stupid race who were destroyed, except a remnant which existed ever after as a group of monkeys in the forests, the creation of the human. race being finally consumated under circumstances of profound mystery. Naturally man was early impressed by the human habits of his strange prototype, and gazed with mingled feelings of amazement, awe, and curiosity, on these roving simulacra of himself, and, in a zone where they were abundant, incorporated their forms in the medley of his religious ideas. Hieroglyphics are found covering the sides of some columns in vertical series, and as with those at Palenque have so far resisted all attempts at translation. These enigmatical symbols doubtless would enlighten us as to the nature of the sites these ruins now occupy, and possibly lift the veil from off their hidden origin, or at any rate tell us something of their worship and its rites. Fragments of sculpture, an immense head 6 ft. high, with numerous pieces half protruding from the soil cumbers the ground in places and offer a curious spectacle. "A pit 5 ft. square and 17 ft. deep cased with stone" is mentioned near the ruins of two circular towers. This vault was entered and its floors and recesses were found littered up with red earthenware dishes "full of human bones packed in lime," sharp knives of chaya, and a death's head carved from a green stone, exquisitely done. Above this a low passageway leads through the terrace to the river side upon which its outlet looks. Palacios a Spanish writer has described 300 years ago superb ruins in this place, an eagle carved in stone bearing a shield covered with cyphers, six statues standing within a plaza circular in form paved with beautiful slabs, its centre. a stone basin and its sides formed of ascending steps.

Huarras, another historian, indicates a similar amphitheatre as late as 1700 probably now buried in the heart of this great forest. Copan appears to be an older city than Palenque, and Stephens imagines its art less polished than the bas-reliefs of the latter. Such is Copan, a dead city, filled with statues and altars. A forgotten, unused sanctuary whose solitudes hear the currentlike sweep of emigrating tides of monkeys through the forest boughs, where once the cries of victims, chants of priests, prayers of a great people and processions of devotees filled its limits with ceremonial pageantry. Ourigua, a group of ruins to the north-east of Copan, consists of pyramids, altars, carved obelisks and scattered fragments.

L. P. GRATACAP.

SACRED DANCES OF THE PAWNEES,

Although the Pawnees are adopting the ways of the white man more and more every day and the Government is steadily bringing them to the level of their white brother yet every effort to induce them to give up their barbarous dances has as yet been fruitless. The dances continue the same as in years gone by when they were kings of the forest: their own masters, when none dictated to them. To-day scarcely a night passes but the wierd sound of the tom-tom and dance song is heard at one or more of their villages and seldom ceases until the sun appears in the east.

THE SCALP DANCE.

The most wierd and important of these dances is the Scalp Dance which in these days seldom occurs. The last one among Pawnees to my knowledge was in the fall of 1879. At these dances no white man is allowed, but through "Knife Chief," son of "Comanche Chief," head chief of the Skee-dee, (upper people) band of the Pawnees, I was invited to attend. As I approached the lodge an hour before sunset, I saw dangling from a lodge pole which arose far above the lodge, the scalp around which the dance was to be held. The scalp was that of a woman. The hair was fully 18 inches long and of a red color. As I entered the lodge no one was within, except the dancers, 10 or 12 in number, who sat in a semi-circle at the back of the lodge and opposite the entrance, and two attendants who busied themselves attending the wants of the dancers. All was quiet, not a word being spoken, until near the setting sun, when occasionally two or three beats of the drum were heard, as if testing its tone when of a sudden and in concert the most unearthly war whoop broke the quiet of the lodge. The drummers beat with all their power, and in came the spectators (mostly men) pell mell, yelling at the top of their voices. All seemed confusion, all were talking at once; but once in, all again became quiet as before. The dancers were naked except as they wore a G string and head dress of white, made from the cottonwood bud. They were painted most fancifully, many being covered all over with white or clay paint. Where only the face was ornamented the more rare colors were used, such as red, green, blue, yellow, but all were painted beyond recognition. Spotted Horse, (the head chief of the Kit-ka-hacks band) was the first to dance; he being the one who had cut the scalp from its owner. He came forth

with dignified air, first described how he had killed the woman cut the scalp off before she was dead, even describing how she