One of the “Temples of the Cross” at Palenque is flanked at the entrance by two well-constructed figures, one on either side, supposed to represent the Mayan war and rain gods.[166] These figures are in low relief, covered with the customary Amerind trappings and head-dresses of this region. On each tablet there are some calculiform characters. Many of the ruined buildings still exhibit a wealth of ornamentation either carved in stone, modelled in stucco, or constructed out of rubble and stucco. Some of the carvings, notably certain heads at Uxmal, have formed the basis for much discussion. The latter were supposed by Waldeck to be representations of elephants’ trunks, but there is no foundation for this supposition. They more likely represent ceremonial masks with long noses. Something similar, though lacking the curve, is seen in some of the remarkable funeral urns found in the Zapotecan tombs.

The statue of Chac-Mool, found at Chichen Itza by Le Plongeon, is an example of what was accomplished when the figure was attempted without any of the accessories of masks, draperies, etc.[167] It is a large reclining figure, crude and primitive. Some of the work at other places is more symmetrical, as, for instance, the Lacandon idol described by Charnay. “This idol is very beautiful and unique of its kind, for nothing like it has been found either in Tabasco or Yucatan. It represents a figure sitting cross-legged, the hands resting on the knees ... the face now mutilated is crowned by an enormous head-dress of a peculiar style, presenting a fantastic head with a diadem and medallions, topped by huge feathers, like those on the columns at Tula and Chichen-Itza.”[168] This idol was found at Menché, where there is a lot of excellent work in the line of carving, some of the wooden lintels being particularly interesting. It is impossible in a brief chapter to convey more than a slight impression of all this elaborate carving. The reader who desires to obtain a full comprehension of the work should study Maudsley’s text and illustrations in the Biologia Centrali Americana.

Where modelling was accomplished by the building-up process with stones and mortar the results were sometimes gigantic. Stephens found an enormous head made in this way at Izamal at the base of the palace of Hunpictok. He described it as being seven feet eight inches high. “The features,” he says, “were first rudely formed by small rough stones, fixed in the side of the mound by means of mortar, and afterwards perfected with stucco so hard that it has resisted the action of air and water for centuries.” The stone composing the chin alone measures one foot and six inches. The face had an extremely large mustache. This singular specimen of the Yucatan Amerinds’ modelling skill has, since the visit of Stephens, completely disappeared. At the same place is another, however, still intact.

This one is thirteen feet high and is constructed in the same manner as the one that is gone.

Everywhere throughout Yucatan and the contiguous region the architecture is overloaded with ornamentation which many large volumes would barely be sufficient to describe. In Nicaragua, as well as in Honduras, there are found many carvings and sculptures, statues, stelæ, etc., but they are rarely equal to those found in the Maya ruins. It must be said, however, that the examination of these states has been even less thorough than that of the Maya region. Tribes of Nahuatl stock built and laboured in the country below the Maya, and in Costa Rica there are indications that the remains belong to Amerinds who differed from both Maya and Nahuatl.

Some of the supposed metates or mealing stones found in Nicaragua are carved with legs and artistically decorated. One figured by Squier is a particularly beautiful specimen. It is a thin curved slab, concave side up, and has four legs. One end projects considerably beyond the legs, apparently forming the head or end where the operator sat or kneeled, and is carved in a wide band all the way across. In Chiriqui there are similar stones. Another class of carved remains found in Chiriqui is apparently a sort of metate, but it differs from the latter in being round, and Holmes designates them as stools, for want of a more exact term.[169] Some wooden stools have recently been obtained in Central America which are so nearly like the affair described by Squier as a metate, that it is probable the latter was also a stool. The figure on page 188 illustrates this class. They have a depressed upper surface and are carved basalt in one piece. An example of the round is given above. To carve an object like this from solid basalt must have been a work of great duration. It is in their metal- and claywork, however, that the Chiriqui Amerinds specially excelled.

All works are dominated by the customs and religious ideas of the Amerind race, which were practically the same everywhere in different stages of development. Nowhere do we find a touch of idealism, which is such a marked characteristic of the work of the European race. The highest of it marks a development in art below the Egyptian. As in picture-writing we trace the growth of letters, so by the aid of the Amerind sculpture and carving we have a line of art progress from infancy to the present time.