334 



PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



in the covering deposit. Tliis application appears tlie more probable as there is 

 preserved among the antiquities of the New York Historical Society an ancient 

 poncho, taken from a tomb at Gran Chimu, near Trujillo, upon which are sewed, 

 in considerable number, silver fishes, not differing much from those sent by Mr. 

 Swayne. On the head of the body with which the poncho was found rested a 

 thin silver plate, cut out in a form which has been supposed to represent a skate, 

 and having on it " struck-up " representations of three fishes resembling those 

 attached to the poncho itself. 



Fig. 404. — Fish-shaped silver ornament. Gran Chimu. 



This fish-shaped ornament, shown in Fig. 404, measures nine and a half 

 inches in greatest length, and five and a fourth inches in greatest breadth. Mr. 

 Squicr tliinks it was inserted between the forehead and the fillet encircling it, 

 and worn as a kind of aigrette.* Professor Gill is of opinion that this figure 

 was not intended to imitate a skate, and thinks it resembles more the Discopyge 

 Tschudii, Heckel (of the Torpedo family), a fish inhabiting the sea along the 

 Peruvian coast. 



The many textile fabrics rescued from Peruvian tombs bear witness to the 

 skill in weaving and dyeing displayed by the former inhabitants, who used as 

 materials cotton and the wool of the camel-like animals of their country (llama 

 alpaca, vicuna, and huanaco). Many of their stuffs show regular inwoven pat- 

 terns, in the form of geometrical designs, or of fruits, reptiles, fishes, birds, 

 quadrupeds, and men. These figures, owing to the difficulty of the process, are 



* Squier : Antiquities, etc.; p. 52. 



