THE METAL ART OF ANCIENT MEXICO. 521 



we do not know. They also are of copper, but a close examination 

 shows them to be unmistakably of drawn wire, the manufacture of 

 which it is not pretended the pre-Columbian native knew. These 

 specimens consist each of a single piece of wire, averaging four inches 

 in length, and are flattened or beveled at both ends. 



Besides the above specimens, this collection comprises two needles 

 of copper, two objects of twisted copper wire, nine little bells, and two 

 bronze chisels. 



The two needles, like the specimens last described, are of drawn 

 copper wire, and are so called because in one end tbere is an eye, while 

 the other is slightly pointed. 



The two twisted wire specimens consist of four pieces of very fine 

 copper wire, six inches long, and neatly twisted about one another. 

 The purpose they served is a matter of speculation. 



Four of the little bells in this collection appear to be alloyed, but 

 are we warranted, in the absence of knowledge as to where and how 

 they were obtained, in ascribing them to pre-Cortesian art ? They 

 bear no evidences of oxidation to indicate great age, and I am disposed 

 to regard them as the bells of which Sahagun speaks in the following 

 quotation : "The goldsmith is an expert in the selection of good 

 metal. He knows how to make of it whatever he likes, and does it 

 with skill and elegance. He is conversant -with all kinds of devices, 

 and all this he does with composure and accuracy. He knows how to 

 purify the ore and make plates of silver as well as of gold from the 

 cast metal. He knows likewise how to make molds of carbon, and 

 how to put the metal into the fire in order to smelt it." Farther on 

 he says : " He who is a trader in needles casts, cleans, and polishes 

 them well ; he makes also bells, filters, punches, nails, axes, hatchets, 

 coopers' adzes, and chisels." * 



No one will pretend that Sahagun here refers to the metal-smiths 

 as they worked before the conquest. For thirty years he lived among 

 the surviving natives, to study their language and record all that he 

 could concerning their customs, mythology, and arts. He gives, when- 

 ever it is obtained, all hearsay testimony as to the civilization which 

 the Spaniards destroyed, but the bulk of his work, excepting the 

 twelfth book, which is devoted to a history of the conquest, is the 

 result of a study of the natives as he found them. This is evident in 

 this case from the fact that he enumerates molds of carbon, needles, 

 filters, coopers' adzes, hatchets, and nails, none of which are mentioned 

 by the chroniclers of the conquest. Dr. Philipp Valentini, com- 

 menting upon this quotation, says, "A few new features are cropping 

 out in this enumeration of implements, which give rise to the suspicion 

 that the goldsmith is described, not as he worked before the year 

 1521, but as he had perfected himself and enlarged his technical 

 knowledge through the intervention of Spanish mechanics in the year 

 * " Historia de la Nueva Espafia," lib. x, cap. vii. 



