There was a small idol, made of hard green stone, which had been found hidden behind the high altar of a church near the town of Gueguetenango. Dr. Scherzer, who during his travels in Central America, had learnt much about the religious customs of the natives, told us that the priest of a church situated amongst the hills near Atitlan had noticed an Indian girl, who was one of his parishioners, showing an unusual fervour in her devotions, and he tried to find out the cause. He, at last, discovered that she had buried an idol in the ground close behind the church beyond the altar, so that although she appeared to be praying to what was before her in the church, she was actually addressing her requests to the idol outside. This priest considered that his Indians were by nature idolaters and that it was not practicable to prevent them from returning to their ancient habits. Señor Gavarrete said that in the Department of Vera-Paz the Indians had still the custom of erecting somewhere near the churches small idol-houses in which they kept the image of a saint. To this they offered sacrifices of meats and flowers, and at certain seasons they were accustomed to keep watch or guard at the door throughout the night. It is more than strange that nothing has been discovered in the course of the explorations of the various ancient sites in this part of the continent, which throws any light upon the methods employed by the Indians, for the purpose of carving and shaping granite, green marble, and hard lava. No mason’s implement of any kind has been found. A few copper chisels appear to have been used for some purpose which is unknown. They could not apparently have been of much service in working stone, for the edges were rounded and the metal was soft. This question as to the system adopted by the Indian sculptors in producing such excellent work, is as inexplicable now as it was to the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. Señor Gavarrete asked me to accept a fine obsidian spear head which had been found amongst the ruins of Quirigua. This black volcanic glass is admirably adapted for cutting and wounding purposes. I had previously picked up in an ancient earthwork outside the city, several fragments of the same substance, which had evidently been placed on the edges of wooden daggers or swords which inflicted jagged and dangerous wounds. Obsidian knives were used by the Aztec priests when offering human sacrifices to their gods. The spear head was in form and in the method followed for chipping the mineral into the requisite shape, similar to the large arrow heads made by the Indians in the western parts of North America, where obsidian is obtained near the volcanic ranges of the Sierra Nevada.