BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 64 PLATE 9.
FIGURINES FROM MOUND NO. 1
The tigers and dragon-like creatures are exactly similar to those figured in Nos. 6 and 4 of the same plate. The bird and snake effigies are very crude and ill made; the former, about 11/2 inches in length, represent birds in the act of flying, with wings extended. The snakes, each represented with a double curve in the body, are about 51/2 inches in length and one-half inch in diameter; they are made of rough clay, painted red. The effigies of the quashes, though rough and crudely made, are rather vigorous and lifelike in execution. Each is about 3 inches long. This small arboreal animal, which abounds in the district, is represented in a variety of comical positions; so well indeed has the artist studied his model that one can not help thinking that he must have kept some of the little animals as pets, as many of the Maya Indians do at the present day. The figures when first found were so brittle that it was impossible to remove them from the pot without breakage, as they had been seemingly only sun dried. After exposure to the sun and air, however, for a few days they gradually hardened.