CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 55 



possession of the Atrato river tribes. The bells were used at cere- 

 monies and festivals. The clapper for the bell was invariably 

 fashioned from a fish bone. Breast plates of wrought gold and 

 shields of copper were also observed. 



In the days of the early Spanish explorers, the Indians of Darien 

 Knew how to wash gold and silver from the sands of the streams. 

 Bancroft relates how Balboa on his march across the Isthmus found 

 the people in possession of large quantities of gold, jewelry, and 

 pearls. The streams, subsiding after a flood caused by heavy rains, 

 brought gold from the river beds. They also gathered a consider- 

 able amount of surface gold washed down from the hills. 



In the Province of Veraguas and in Darien, the workers in gold 

 possessed crucibles for melting metals; also silversmith's implements. 

 The natives understood the rolling and working of gold, from which 

 many utilitarian objects, such as cups and jars and ornaments were 

 made. The metal work of the natives has deteriorated with the 

 decrease in their supply of gold and silver and because of the prox- 

 imity of the trader and his ware. The natives exchanging gold dust 

 for foodstuffs and other articles at Panama City to-day find that 

 traders will not barter until they have first separated the pure gold 

 by extracting the ferruginous metal with a magnet. 



Early explorers of Panama found no other metals than gold or 

 silver in use by the aborigines. Practically the same is true to-day. 

 In hunting and fishing enterprises the native employs iron spear and 

 harpoon points or foreshaft. Firearms have been introduced, and 

 the machete or combination cutting implement and weapon is in 

 general use. These objects of iron or of steel are never cast or forged 

 locally, but are acquired in trade and in the case of arrow and har- 

 poon points have undergone a process of reshaping to fit the demands 

 of local use or of native pattern of decorative design ; more often the 

 metal object was originally intended for an entirely different use — 

 any kind of iron rod becomes a spear foreshaft, and a common file 

 becomes a harpoon head. 



Knives and celts. — The machete is the principal cutting implement 

 and weapon of the jungle and has a wide variety of application. The 

 natives (Tule) call it "e'o norri." The machetes in the Museum 

 collection from Darien (Cat. No. 327622, U.S.N.M.) have undergone 

 no process of change in shape of cutting blade, handle, or in orna- 

 mentation. The Indians have simply taken the machete over as 

 they receive it from the trader lavishing the individuality of their 

 craftsmanship on the wooden scabbard. The heavy blade is about 

 two feet long, narow near the grip, and widening toward the distal 

 end, where is also the center of gravity. 



In an area lacking in native ferruginous metals, but abounding 

 in woods of many degrees of hardness, and in reeds, grasses, and 



