MODES OF BURIAL. 31 



<tonp. The form of these is circular, and one of the surfaces flat and as smooth 

 iis a crystal mirror ; the other oval and less polished. I saw one a foot and a half 

 'in diameter ; its principal surface was concave and greatly magnified objects, and 

 the polish of which could not now be exceeded by our best workmen. A hole is 

 drilled to hang them by. They found, also, guaqueros for drinking chica ; some 

 of which are made of fine black clay, and others of red clay. They are round, 

 with the handle in the middle, the mouth on one side, and the head of an Indian 

 excellently expressed on the other. Among the gold pieces are found nose jewels, 

 which, in form, resemble the foot of a chalice, but are a little smaller; collars, brace- 

 lets, and ear-pendants like the nose jewels, and all of them not thicker than paper. 

 The idols which are full length are hollow, of one piejce, and show no mark of 

 soldering. Emeralds are found in the tombs, splierical, cylindrical, and conical, 

 and pierced with the greatest delicacy ; this is very remarkable, as steel and iron 

 were unknown.' 



Humboldt states that during his travels in Peru, in visiting the ruins of the 

 City of Chimu, near Mansiche, he went into the interior of the famous Guaca de 

 Toledo, the tomb of a Peruvian prince, in wliich Garci Gutierez de Toledo dis- 

 covered, in digging a gallery in 1576, masses of gold amounting to five millions of 

 francs, as is proved by the accounts in the mayor's office at Truxillo.^ 



The burial customs of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians appear to have been 

 similar to those of the Mongol Tartars. 



Humboldt has given, in his Perf^onal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial 

 Rerjions of America, tlie following interesting description of the cavern and 

 mummies of Ataruipe: — 



"In this shady and solitary spot, on the declivity of a steep mountain, the cavern of Ataruipe 

 opens to the view. It is less a cavern than a jutting rock, in which the waters have scooped a vast 

 hollow, when, in the ancient revolutions of our planet, they attained that height. In this tomb of a 

 whole extinct tribe, we soon counted nearly six hundred skeletons well preserved, and regularly 

 placed. Every skeleton reposed in a sort of basket made of the petioles of the palm tree. These 

 baskets, which the natives call mapires, have the form of a square bag. Their size is proportioned 

 to the age of the dead; there are some for infants cut off at the moment of birth. We saw them 

 from ten inches to three feet four inches long, the skeletons in them being bent together. They are 

 all ranged near each other, and are so entire that not a rib or a phalanx is wanting. The bones 

 have been prepared in three ditferent methods, either whitened in the air and the sun, dyed red with 

 annotto, or, like mummies, varnished with odoriferous resins and enveloped in leaves of the heliconia 

 or of the plantain tree. The Indians informed us that the corpse is placed in damp ground, that 

 the flesh may be consumed by degrees ; some months afterwards it is taken out and the flesh remain- 

 ing on the bones is scraped off with sharp stones. Several hordes in Guiana still observe this 

 custom. Earthen vases half baked are found near the mapires or baskets. They appear to contain 

 the bones of the same family. The largest of these vases or funeral urns are five feet high and three 

 feet three inches long. Their color is greenish-gray, and their oval form is pleasing to the eye. 

 The handles are made in the shape of crocodiles or serpents; the edges are bordered with painted 

 manders, labyrinths, and grecques, in rows variously combined. 



"It appears that to the north of the cataracts, in the straits of Baraguan, there are caverns filled 

 with bones similar to those I have just described." * * * 



» Ulloa, vol. i, pp. 366-369. ^ Vol. i, p. 92. 



