COLOSSAL BEAR AND GOLDEN IMAGE.
From a mound of earth fifteen feet in diameter, and five or six feet high, on an island in Duckwarra Lagoon, south of Cape Gracias á Dios, Mr Squier unearthed a crumbling human skeleton, at whose head was a rude burial vase containing chalcedony beads, two arrow-heads of the same material, and the human figure shown full-sized in the cut, fashioned from a piece of gold plate. Antonio, an intelligent Maya servant, could see no resemblance in this figure to any relics of his race in Yucatan. Two additional vases of coarse earthen ware were discovered, but contained no relics. On another occasion, during a moonlight visit to the 'Mother of Tigers,' a famed native sukia, or sorceress, on the Bocay, which is a branch of the Wanks, about fifty miles south-westward from Cape Gracias, Mr Squier claims to have seen a ruined structure, part of which is shown in the cut. The building was of two stories, but the upper walls had fallen, covering the ground with fragments. It is described as "built of large stones, laid with the greatest regularity, and sculptured all over with strange figures, having a close resemblance, if not an absolute identity" with those drawn by Catherwood. A short distance from the building stood an erect stone rudely sculptured in human form, facing east, as in the [cut]. There are, however, some reasons for doubting the accuracy of these Bocay discoveries, notwithstanding the author's well-known skill and reliability as an antiquarian, since they were published under a nom de plume, and in a work perhaps intended by the writer as a fictitious narrative of adventures.[II-29]
Home of the Sukia.
Mosquito Statue.
Across the dividing sierras, the Pacific slope, or Nicaragua proper, has yielded plentiful monuments of her former occupants, chiefly to the researches of two men, Messrs Squier and Boyle. The former confined his explorations chiefly to the region between the lakes and ocean, while the latter has also made known the existence of remains on the north-east of Lake Nicaragua, in the province of Chontales.[II-30]