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derground layer of human refuse substantially the same in all the caves, instructive as it was, had taught us but little of details. Evidently a wide range of tools and implements had not been left, lost or broken in the subterranean rooms. We did not find, and did not expect to find, that the water producing underground chambers had been used as burying places. Neither were they dwellings, but rather temporary halting spots, which, but for the water supply, would probably have shown fewer human traces than do the caves of the United States. Human bones scattered in the rubbish indicated that the old inhabitants of Yucatan practiced cannibalism. Beyond that, the traces of pre-Columbian cookery at the underground sites referred to an ancient cave visitor, who was rather an agriculturist than a hunter, and who (unless the dog found at Sabaka be an exception) possessed no domestic animals.

"We had learned little of stone chipping, and had found in the scanty list of stone blades but one imperfect point that might have served for an arrowhead. The secret of stone carving we had failed to discover, and though the whole mystery had seemed within our grasp at Oxkintok, we had to rest content with proving that the chiselling of the ruins could not have been done with chips of the parent block or round hammer stones. We had found no copper, or gold, or silver, no jade, no gums, no preserved grains, no cloth, no apparatus for weaving, and had discovered no pipe, and learned nothing of preColumbian smoking or tobacco.

"A close examination of the potsherds showed a ware mixed with powdered limestone that reacted strongly under acid on the fractures. A smooth red make, strong, wellbaked, and symmetrical, and whose dull polished surface resisted the action of nitric acid, was abundant, while a very few fragments were decorated with brightly colored designs, though their polish, after the manner of varnish, yielded readily to the acid test. Many, though better baked than the ware of the Delaware Indians, were coarse. A very common hard variety had been striped with brown lines on a white or bluish background. But there was nothing brilliant or striking about these fragments of dishes, cooking pots, or water jars. Few were ornamented, and only two or three highly so. None were marked with hieroglyphs. Nevertheless, a variety of tones, colors, and polish struck the eye when many sherds were laid side by side and brushed.

"But results more important than these had rewarded our close examination of the position and contents of the human rubbish heap everywhere present in the caves. Though this layer was the only cul

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1. Cave of Sayab Actun, interior. 2. Section of Cave of Actun Xmak.

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1. Cave of Sayab Actun, interior. 2. Section of Cave of Actun Xmak.

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