163 



807 thousandths fine, and its intrinsic value is near thirty-five dollars; 

 the bird is 627 fine, and worth nearly eight dollars. 



Some interesting matters of fact may be deduced from these curious 

 relics; which, from the small rings or loops attached to them, and 

 from a consideration of the customs and superstitions of ancient heathen 

 nations all over the world, may be believed to have been worn upon 

 the person both as ornaments and talismans, and as such sacredly 

 deposited with the owners upon their decease. We must assume that 

 these images were manufactured before the Spanish Invasion, and 

 they mny belong to a high antiquity. 



It appears then, that the ancient Indians were familiar with the 

 mining and metallurgy of gold; and if not very elegant designers, 

 could make quite respectable castings. They also knew the relative 

 values of gold and copper; or they would not have troubled themselves 

 to introduce copper so largely into these sacred emblems or images, 

 and then covering it up with a pickled surface. For it must be ob- 

 served that copper is not a natural alloy of gold, as silver is; yet we 

 find in one of these specimens a large proportion of copper. And in 

 a considerable quantity of these images, lately melted down at the 

 United States Assay Office in New York, the proportion of the mass 

 was 788 parts gold, 190 parts copper, and only 22 parts silver. 

 Another curious fact is, that they were acquainted with the process of 

 pickling, or biting out the alloying metals from the surface, so as to 

 leave a golden exterior. This is specially observable in the reptile 

 specimen; and many years ago, we noticed the same circumstance, 

 in relation to similar images found in the mounds of New Grenada, 

 and shown at the Mint; now in the collection made by the late Jacob 

 G. Morris, Esq. As the ancient artists had no knowledge of the 

 mineral acids, they must have employed certain native salts, such as 

 sal ammoniac and the nitrate of soda, to produce the desired effect. 



Central America is a gold-producing region, and formerly we re- 

 ceived considerable quantities of gold from that quarter. It was 

 always in artificial laminations, resulting from a process of parting 

 the silver alloy; whence we infer that the gold naturally is consider- 

 ably alloyed with that metal. The addition of copper is always of 

 man's device; and with a judicious proportion of silver, as jewellers 

 understand very well, a good gold colour is maintained. 



The' fact that all these images seem to be in the form of reptiles and 

 birds of prey, real or fanciful, leads to the idea that they were meant 

 to propitiate such creatures as were most likely to disturb the repose 

 of the dead. 



