it reads cuntur-cura-ne-i-runa, "the eagle chief of the men." If a foot is also added, this reads cha-ntin, in addition to the above, or "the eagle chief of these tribes' men." Each figure, or part of figure, its position and relation to the other figures with which it it related, gives its meaning, but the phonetic value remains the same, unless the contrary is shown by some alteration of the figure. As an illustration of this, if the inscriptions are carefully inspected, several serpent symbols are displayed; some are separate, others are attached to persons, to birds, to birds' bodies, to reptiles' bodies, or to other combinations of these snakes; some are feathered, this being a common symbolic figure in many different parts of America, where it implies a teacher, a wise man, a priest, &c. In Aztecan it read quetzal-coatl, in Itzan it was cuculcan. In one dialect of Quichua it read amaute, in another one amaru, &c., but all meaning the same^__i.e., "wise teachers." In another form and combination in the inscriptions it is to be read curi, "the golden or shining serpent." In other combinations it is read as amatu, "the warlike snake; or as machaca, a "hated enemy," a "venomous snake;" or as machacui, "the spirit enemies," or "snakes of the dead; or as palu, "the deceitful snakes," or "treacherous enemies," or "opponents who are deceitful." Several other forms and combinations will be seen, but these show the ideas in the inscriptions borrowed from American models, and used by these scribes in similar ways for the same meanings. On the heads of many of the figures in the inscriptions will be seen an arrow or an obtuse blunt spear-shaped figure: this stands for the word chuqui, meaning "an old ancestor," and it often has one or two rings at the sides; these stand for yn, meaning "of the Sun," or yn-ti, "belonging to the Sun," and the right or left side indicates which tribe they belong to, as American symbolic figures in many parts of the S.W. indicates the tribe of the individual displayed, or which Sun-tribe he belonged to. These tribes of the Sun, also being Sun-worshippers, or rather adorers of ancestral spirits in the Sun, extended over the Cordillera for 2,600 miles north and south, and among them were many subdivisions, and each had an emblem to indicate it. In the inscriptions of Easter Island, under the arm of many of the figures will be seen a peculiar-shaped weapon: it is to be read cchingana, and this symbol means there "a labyrinth, a cave." In such places their dead were often deposited, and in it, when they felt pressed upon by enemies, they often took a final stand, and fought desperately.
   The plan upon which the scribes made the inscriptions of Easter Island was to engrave the conventional figure of the person or his tribal totemic sign, as generally drawn in their symbolic manner, and thus widely understood by chiefs, priests, and scribes. This was an eagle-headed figure for those of the Eagle tribes^__i.e., those called cuntur-azo. The Chamborazos were drawn with an axe^__the old copper-axe being