[III-23] 'There was no entire pyramid, but, at most, two or three pyramidal sides, and these joined on to terraces or other structures of the same kind.' Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 139. The author intends to speak perhaps of the Temple only, but Mr Jones applies the words to Copan in general, and considers them a flat contradiction of the statement respecting the three detached pyramids. Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 63. 'Les édifices sont tous tombés et ne montrent plus que des monceaux de pierres.' Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 73. 'Several hills, thirty or forty feet in height, and supporting ruins, appeared to have been themselves entirely built of stone.' Hardcastle, in Hist. Mag., vol. vi., p. 154. 'Unas ruinas y vestigios de gran poblazon, y de soberbios edificios.' 'Hay montes que parecen haber sido fechos á manos.' Palacio, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., p. 37. The latter sentence is incorrectly translated by M. Ternaux-Compans, 'il y a des arbres que paraissent avoir été plantés de main d'homme.' Recueil de Doc., p. 42. Mr Squier makes the same error: 'Trees which appear to have been planted by the hands of men.' Translation of Palacio, Carta, p. 91.
[III-24] See Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 140, 138, 136-7, 134, 149, 158, 157, 156, 155, 153, 152, 150, 151, for description of the statues in their order from 1 to 14, with plates of all but 4, 6, and 12, showing the altars of 7, 10, and 13. Plates of 3, 5, 10, and 13 are copied from Stephens in Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., pl. ix-xi.; and of No. 13, from the same source, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1841, tom. xcii., p. 57. We have already seen the idea of Fuentes respecting these statues, clad in Spanish habits; that of the Licenciado Palacio is as follows: 'Una estátua grande, de más que quatro varas de alto, labrada como un obispo vestido de pontificial, con su mitra bien labrada y anillos en las manos.' In the plaza, which would seem to be the court A, where no statues were found by Stephens, were 'seis estátuas grandísimas, las tres de hombres armados á lo mosáico, con liga gambas, é sembradas muchas labores por las armas; y las otras dos de mujeres con buen ropaje largo y tocaduras á lo romano; la otra, es de obispo, que parece tener en las manos un bulto, como cofrecito; decian ser de idolos, porque delante de cada una dellas habia una piedra grande, que tenia fecha una pileta con su sumidero, donde degollaban los sacrificados y corria la sangre.' Palacio, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., pp. 37-8. Galindo says 'there are seven obelisks still standing and entire, in the temple and its immediate vicinity; and there are numerous others, fallen and destroyed, throughout the ruins of the city. These stone columns are ten or eleven feet high, and about three broad, with a less thickness; on one side were worked, in basso-relievo, (Stephens states, on the contrary, that all are cut in alto-relievo) human figures, standing square to the front, with their hands resting on their breast; they are dressed with caps on their heads, and sandals on their feet, and clothed in highly adorned garments, generally reaching half way down the thigh, but sometimes in long pantaloons. Opposite this figure, at a distance of three or four yards, was commonly placed a stone table or altar. The back and sides of the obelisk generally contain phonetic hieroglyphics in squares. Hard and fine stones are inserted (naturally?) in many obelisks, as they, as well as the rest of the works in the ruins, are of a species of soft stone, which is found in a neighbouring and most extensive quarry.' Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., p. 548; and in Bradford's Amer. Antiq., p. 97. A bust 1m., 68 high, belonging to a statue fifteen to twenty feet high. Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 76. Pillars so loaded with attributes that some scrutiny is required to discover from the head in the centre that they represent a human form. An altar not infrequently found beside them would, if necessary, show their use. They are sun-pillars, such as are found everywhere in connection with an ancient sun-religion. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 464.
[III-25] Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., pp. 547-8; Id., in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 73, supplementary pl. vii., fig. 14. This head bears a remarkable resemblance to one given by Humboldt as coming from New Granada, shown in fig. 13, of the same plate. Stephens, Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 144, gives the dimensions of the two niches as 1 foot 8 in. by 1 foot 9 in. by 2 feet 5 in.; the relics having been removed before his visit.
[III-26] Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 103-4, 142-3, with cut. Cut also in Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., pl. x.
[III-27] Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 140-2, with plates; Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1841, tom. xcii., pp. 57, 67-8. Plate. Mention of the altar with a comparison of the cross-legged chiefs to certain ornaments of Xochicalco. Tylor's Anahuac, p. 190. The altar is described by Galindo as a very remarkable stone table in the temple, 'two feet four inches high, and four feet ten inches square; its top contains forty-nine square tablets of hieroglyphics; and its four sides are occupied by sixteen human figures in basso-relievo, sitting cross-legged, on cushions carved in the stone, and bearing each in their hands something like a fan or flapper.' Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., p. 548. To Mr Jones, possessed as that gentleman is with the 'Soul of History,' this altar is the 'Rosetta-stone' of American antiquity. The four supporting stones are eggs; serpents occur in the ornaments; the objects held in the hands of the lesser personages of the sides are spiral shells; the figures are seated cross-legged, or in the oriental style; one chief holds a sceptre, the other none. Now these interpretations are important to the author, since he claims that the serpent was the good demon of the Tyrians; a serpent entwining an egg is seen on Tyrian coins; the spiral shell was also put on Tyrian medals in honor of the discovery of the famous purple; the style of sitting is one practiced in Tyre; the chief representing Tyre holds no sceptre, because Tyre had ceased to be a nation at the time of the event designed to commemorate. The conclusion is clear: the altar was built in commemoration of an act of friendship between Tyre and Sidon, by which act the people of the former nation were enabled to migrate to America! Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., pp. 65-6, 156-62. More of this in a future treatise on origin.
[III-28] Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 134-9, 156; Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., pp. 548-9; Id., in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 76; Davis' Antiq. Amer., pp. 4-5; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 68-9. Palacio's miscellaneous relics are, a large stone in the form of an eagle with a tablet of hieroglyphics a vara long on its breast; a stone cross three palms high, with a broken arm; and a supposed baptismal font in the plaza. Relacion, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., p. 38.
[III-29] Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 67; Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 142; Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, p. 197.
[III-30] Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 102-3, 151. 'La sculpture monumentale des ruines de Copan peut rivaliser avec quelques produits similaires de l'Orient et de l'Occident européens. Mais la conception de ces monuments, l'originalité de leur ornementation suffit à plus d'un esprit pour éloigner toute idée d'origine commune.' Dally, Races Indig., p. 13.
[III-31] 'We have this type of skull delineated by artists who had the skill to portray the features of their race. These artists would not select the most holy of places as the groundwork of their caricatures. This form, then, pertained to the most exalted personages.' Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, pp. 302, 338-9.
[III-32] 'The hieroglyphics displayed upon the walls of Copan, in horizontal or perpendicular rows, would indicate a written language in which the pictorial significance had largely disappeared, and a kind of word-writing had become predominant. Intermingled with the pictorial devices are apparently purely arbitrary characters which may be alphabetic.' Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, p. 322. They are conjectured to recount the adventures of Topiltzin-Acxitl, a Toltec king who came from Anáhuac and founded an empire in Honduras, or Tlapallan, at the end of the eleventh century. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 101-2. Like those of Palenque, and some characters of the Dresden MS. Squier's Pref. to Palacio, Carta, p. 10. 'No he hallado libros de sus antigüedades, ni creo que en todo este distrito hay más que uno, que yo tengo.' Palacio, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., p. 39. I have no idea what this one book spoken of may have been. The characters are apparently hieroglyphics, 'but to us they are altogether unintelligible.' Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., pp. 55-6, 66.