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MEXICAN ARCHÆOLOGY

of which will be met again when we come to consider the art of Yucatan; and related to the same culture are figures representing a reclining god, probably one of the octli-gods, holding a vase. One of these, of colossal proportions, has also been found in Yucatan. This type of statue seems to have been copied in Aztec times, and the specimen on PI. VIII, 2, probably belongs to this later period. Caryatid figures are also found in Tlaxcala. A particular class of sculpture is constituted by the peculiar stone figures found in the Panuco valley, of which a fine series may be seen in the British Museum (Pl. X, 1). These are distinguished by the pointed head-dress associated with the Huaxtec, sometimes combined with the jaws of a monster, or a semicircular crest with engraved snake-design. Most are otherwise nude, and all exhibit a somewhat crude and archaic character. Belonging to the Totonac culture are certain enigmatical stone objects, beautifully carved, of which the principal are the so-called "yokes" and "paddle-shaped stones." The shape of the former is best seen from the illustration, Fig. 21; viewed from the side or rounded end (a), the carving in nearly all Cases represents a monster or grotesque human being crouching upon the ground, while from above (b), the rounded end represents the upper jaw of a gaping mouth furnished with teeth. "The use of these has been much disputed, but I would suggest the following explanation as the simplest. The attitude of the crouching figure shows that the normal position of the object is flat upon the ground, as in Fig. 21, a, while the fact that the yokes are found in graves suggests that they have a funerary significance. It is possible that they were meant to support the corpse in an upright position, and as such the crouching figure typifies the earth-monster, while the gaping mouth represents the jaws of the same creature open to receive the dead, just as the earth-monster is shown in manuscripts supporting a