grooves seen at the Moki towns to-day are the result of the sharpening of planting sticks. Gerard Fowke describes the cupped-stones in the Bureau of Ethnology collection,[59] as follows, and it will be noticed that thin pieces have cups on both sides, while the large blocks have them only on one. This was because it was convenient to turn the small stones over. In some cases where a cup had worn too large, another was started in the bottom of it, perhaps because the rock at that particular spot suited the fancy of the individual. Fowke says: “The cupped-stones in the Bureau are almost invariably of reddish sandstone, of varying texture, from a few ounces to thirty pounds in weight. The holes are from one to twenty-five in number, of various sizes, even in the same stone, and follow the natural contour of the surface even when that is quite irregular; the stone is never flattened or dressed to bring the cups on a level; none show any marks of work, but are rough blocks or slabs in their natural state. Many of the holes are roughly pecked in, but the larger ones are usually smooth, as if ground out, and almost complete hemispheres. They range from a pit only started or going scarcely beyond the surface to one two inches in diameter. The smaller ones with one cup pass into the pitted stones. Occasionally at the bottom of a large cup there is a small secondary hole as though made by a flint drill. Slabs or thin pieces nearly always have cups on both sides, while blocks or thick slabs have them on one side only.” In the case of the cup markings of the Eastern Hemisphere, their frequent peculiar arrangement accompanied by grooves and circles may have pertained to some ceremony connected with the drill-dressing. It may have been thought that the fire would come quicker, be better, or last longer when the drill was dressed in holes of a certain type; or special stones and holes of peculiar arrangement may have been required for dressing the drill-end that was to be used by the priest in the sacred ceremony of producing the “new-fire.” In this manner a primitive custom might become sacred and be surrounded with symbolism exemplified in cup markings the world over. [Illustration: CUP FROM CHIRIQUI] [Illustration: TERRA COTTA FROM CHIRIQUI] CHAPTER IV THE MEXICAN AND CENTRAL-AMERICAN WRITING, INSCRIPTIONS, AND BOOKS