ChaHchihuitls from Central America. 



nations, from the advanced Chinese, to whom the green jade is 

 aacred, to the Bavage dwellers on the banks of the Orinoco, 

 among whom llmnlinl.lt Pound cylinders of hard green stones, 

 the mosl highly prized objects of the several tribes, and some 

 of which it must have required a lifetime to work into shape. 



Of the carved chalchihuitls, like those described from Fig. 1 

 t . Fig. 15, I have seen bul three specimens outside of my own 

 collection: one already alluded to in the Christy Museum of 

 London, another in the late Uhde Museum near Heidelberg, 

 and a third in the Waldeck collection in Paris. 



The question how these obdurate stones were engraved, 

 drilled, and sawn apart, or from the blocks of which they once 

 formed a portion, is one likely to arise in most minds. It is 

 one that has puzzled many inquirers; nor do I pretend to give 

 an answer, except thai the drilling was probably performed by 

 a vibratory drill, composed of a thin shaft of cane or bamboo, the 

 silica of which was re-enforced by very tine sand, or the dust of 



the very article under treatment. The stria shown in the ori- 



are proof of BOmething of the kind, and the esteem at- 

 tached to these stone.- by the aborigines proves that their value. 



thai of the main-spring of a watch, was due mainly to the 

 amount of labor expended in their production. 



A - regards the saw ing, of which the back.- of Figs. 1. "», ami 1 7 

 afford striking examples, we may find a clue in the accounts of 

 the early chroniclers, who relate that they Baw, in Santo Do- 

 mingo and elsewhere, the natives use a thread of the cabuya 



(or ■ • with a little sand, not only in cutting stone, but 



iron itself. The thread was held in both hands, and drawn 

 right and left until worn out by attrition, and then changed for 

 a new one. line -and and water being Constantly supplied. 



No! a few inquirers entertain the hypothesis that mosl of 



tin- raised and sunken ligures on vari<>u> stones in Mexico, 

 I itral America, and the mounds of the United States, were 



duoed h\ persistenl rubbing or abrasion a general bypothe- 



which I shall not dispute. Hut in objects from the mounds, 



