Wearing an elaborate costume, crowned with a tall headdress, this seated hunchback is clearly an individual of stature. For centuries, throughout ancient America, hunchbacks had been revered as the blessed of the gods, as people with supernatural powers. Hunchbacks figure prominently in funerary rituals as intermediaries to the realm of the spirits. Very possibly this vessel, intended for burial, reflects that fact. In his hypnotic presence, we do not doubt for an instant that this fellow knows many ancient secrets lost to us today.