the god incised on the deer bone, and according to Villagutierre, the Indians of this neighborhood up to the end of the seventeenth century were closely allied to the Itzaex,[58] who still freely practiced their ancient religious rites. [Illustration: FIG. 83.--Copper object found in Mound No. 39.] MOUND NO. 40 Mound No. 40, situated near Pueblo Nuevo, on the Rio Hondo, consisted of a ridge about 10 feet high by 40 feet in length. On the summit of the ridge near its center, covered only by a layer of humus, was found a small rough three-legged vase 3 inches high, containing a single long, polished, greenstone bead. The upper part of the ridge was found to consist of blocks of limestone, limestone dust, and rubble, on removing which to a depth of about 4 feet the ruins of a building were brought to light (fig. 84). The bones were in so poor a state of preservation that it was difficult to determine the exact position in which the body had been placed at the time of burial; it had, however, certainly been fully extended. Close to the head were found fragments of three round bowls, all precisely similar in both size and coloring. Each was of the shape shown in figure 71, _b_, 3-1/2 inches high by 6-1/2 inches in diameter, and was made of rather fine ash-colored pottery, finely polished. Each of these bowls before burial had the bottom knocked out. The mound beneath the building was composed of blocks of limestone, rubble, and limestone dust, forming a tough, solid, compact mass. This would seem to have been a small private house, not a temple, which (probably on account of the death of its owner) had been deliberately wrecked, and the owner's body buried beneath the cement floor of the one chamber remaining partially intact. Fresh cement seems to have been applied over the grave before the greater part of the house was pulled down and the wreckage piled up, to form a capping to the mound upon which the house stood.