Mounds containing animal and human effigies appear to be singularly limited in their distribution. At Santa Rita seven have been explored in all, each containing 1 to 49 effigies, some very crudely and roughly made from sun-dried clay, others nicely modeled and painted in various colors. Probably several more of these mounds had been removed by the former owners of the estate to obtain stone for building and road-making purposes, as figurines similar to those taken from the excavated mounds were found in the possession of coolie laborers working on the estate, which they said they had found from time to time when digging for stone. The effigies comprise figures of men, alligators, turtles, quashes, lizards, birds, sharks, and snakes, together with two-headed dragons and other mythologic animals. Similar mounds containing animal effigies have been found at Douglas, about 18 miles southwest of Santa Rita; at Bacalar, 25 miles northwest; at Corozal, less than a mile south; and near San Antonio, about 9 miles north of it. In each of these localities only a single effigy was found, the workmanship of which resembled so closely that of the Santa Rita specimens that it would be difficult to decide from which locality they had come. So far as it has been possible to ascertain, no similar human and animal effigies have been previously discovered in this section of the Maya area. The significance of these figurines appears to be somewhat obscure. They are not invariably found associated with human remains, though this may be owing to the fact that the bones have completely perished through decay or because cremation has been practiced. They show no signs of use or wear and were evidently made only to be buried. The hollow specimens frequently contain one or more beads of red shell, greenstone, or clay in their interiors, while in most cases they have been found associated with fragments of pottery incense burners, which in this region seem to have been very commonly mortuary in use. On the whole it seems probable that these figurines were merely votive offerings to the gods, buried with the dead. Some of them may indicate the occupation of the individual with whom they were buried. A priest and warrior from the same mound have been described, whose occupant may have combined the double office, while a small statuette of an old man, with a macapal slung over his shoulders, by a strap passing across the forehead (typical of an Indian laborer of the present day), was found by a coolie digging out stone from a mound at Santa Rita many years ago. MOUND NO. 4