A STONE RUIN AT SË-TSAK, GUATEMALA BY ROBERT BURKITT This brief description and the accompanying diagrams are of a stone ruin at Së-tsak, in the land of Sepacuité, about four leagues east of the village of Senahú, province of Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala, which was visited by the writer in 1896. The ruin blocks the summit of a narrow pass, and the woods in the immediate vicinity are of old growth, and not pines. The western approach, which is very steep, is cut square across by the outlying wall, at a in plate IV and figure 3. This wall, or stair, lies due north and south, or very nearly, and forms the edge of a sort of terrace behind the main structure. The main structure is not parallel with that wall, but faces the opening of the wall on the other side; the pass shifts round at the top, as indicated in the figure. The banks are steep on both hands and abut against the sides of the structure to the height of the first platform, as shown by the profile L, M, in plate iv. At the front corners the space left between the receding bank and the side of the structure, on each hand, is filled across with tiers of stone, now covered with rubbish and not shown in the drawings. The front of the ruin is sunk toward the middle, and the size of the steps is averaged. The front view of the main structure in outline, restored, is shown in plate v. The point of view is P, shown on the plan (pl. Iv), fifteen feet from the base, on a line with the side, and level with the top (c), the center of perspective—to be four inches from the eye. The stone of which the structure is built is limestone, and not hard. Squared stones are found only in the front, or easterly side, of the ruin, where the stones are larger than in other parts. The largest are not more than two and one-half feet long. No mortar was used. The interior was not explored. The back terraces appear to have been paved, at least along the foot of the main strucThe stair behind was probably much deeper than the present ture. surface at A. Main structure. Measurements (in English feet) Length from north to south....................................... Breadth of terraces Length of steps....... Height of steps... Breadth of steps.. Western side: Height....... Base of main structure to western steps 14.2 37 35.3 2.2 3 1.3 9 1.5 .65 6.5 29.5 near A Height of two corner steps Height of third step 2 3 base of upper structure ................ to base of upper structure.................... Upper structure: Length of lower platform CHEYENNE STREAM NAMES BY GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL In primitive America descriptive names were applied to physiographic features. A valley might be named from some animal abundant about it, a butte or a mountain from its shape, a river from the taste of its waters, from the trees that grew by it, or from some historical event that had happened near its banks; in other words, among the Indians each place-name had its meaning. In the West these meanings have in some cases been preserved in translation—the only practical way, since the Indian term is often too long and its pronunciation too difficult for the average white Over much of the United States, however, place-names are to the last degree commonplace. Athens, Rome, and Utica for cities, Olympus and the Matterhorn for mountain peaks, Smith's river and Jones' creek everywhere are familiar enough. man. The names given to geographical features by the Indians of diferent regions should be recorded, and I present here a number of names, with their meanings, given by the Cheyenne Indians to some of the rivers in the country over which they formerly ranged. This country extended from the Yellowstone southward to and beyond the Arkansas, and from the headwaters of the Platte and the Arkansas eastward to about where the North and South Platte unite and the Arkansas is met by the Cimarron. This was the country which the Cheyenne regarded as theirs—with the Black hills as its center although it was constantly invaded by the Pawnee from the east, by the Blackfeet from the north, by the Crows, Ute, and Shoshoni from the west, and by the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache from the south. The Arapaho, their friends and allies from very early times, occupied it in common with the Cheyenne. In these names the word river (ohe') commonly appears, but this is not always the case in Cheyenne, any more than in English. It will be observed that in the case of certain rivers, as the Platte and the Canadian, the name of the main stream is carried up one of |
