5 20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



brought from that country to be exchanged for other merchandise, and 

 that they were made of copper. 



All those very uniform implements, termed " T-shaped," of which 

 we know, are also of pure or unalloyed copper. As to these, however, 

 there is nothing in the records or in the objects themselves to warrant 

 belief in their ante-Cortesian origin. The material of which they are 

 made appears to be the hammered sheet-copper in use before the in- 

 vention of the rolling-mill in 1784, and which formed, as the records 

 show, a very favorite article of aboriginal trade. The specimens bear 

 no evidence of oxidation to indicate great age, and the fact that their 

 edges are very neatly cut gives rise to the suspicion that their manu- 

 facture must have been subsequent to the introduction of the necessary 

 European cutting-tools. They were found only in the State of Oaxaca, 

 and in each find there were great numbers of them. It is not im- 

 probable, then, that for some purpose or other a large lot of sheet-cop- 

 per was at an early day introduced among the natives of that section, 

 who in turn converted it into these implements. What special use 

 they were intended to serve we can at present only surmise. The ab- 

 sence of objects like these in the aboriginal codices should be noted, 

 while throughout the whole literature of the conquest there is but one 

 approach to their description. This is found in Torquemada, w T ho 

 says : " They also used certain copper coins almost in the shape of a 

 Greek Tau, its width about three or four fingers. It was a thin piece 

 of plate of an uncertain size, and contained much gold." It is not likely 

 that the specimens in question were used as coins, for the edges of 

 what might be called the shank are flattened as if for the attachment 

 of a handle, and hence its probable use as an implement. Moreover, 

 they do not answer to Torquemada's description, for, instead of being 

 three or four fingers in width, they vary in this respect from fourteen 

 to twenty centimetres; and, instead of containing much gold, analyses 

 have proved them to be of very pure copper. Admitting them, how- 

 ever, to be the objects that Torquemada had in mind when he wrote, 

 he is not sufficient authority for ascribing them to pre-Cortesian art. 



In the National Museum at Washington there are three copper 

 specimens that were used as awls. One of them, which is nine inches 

 long, is pointed at one end, and flattened or beveled at the other, 

 while it bears unmistakable evidences of having been shaped by ham- 

 mering. It closely resembles in form, composition, and fabrication a 

 similar tool lately procured by the Bureau of Ethnology from a mound 

 in Wisconsin. These, with other specimens, were purchased from the 

 collection of the distinguished Mexican archaeologist, Don Fernando 

 Ramirez, but it is to be deeply regretted that, with the exception of 

 one or two specimens, no data accompanied them as to the locality or 

 manner in which they were found. We can not even say with cer- 

 tainty that they were found within the limits of Mexico. 



In this collection came also five specimens the precise use of which 



