No. 8 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I9Q13 Si 
Some of their smaller dwellings were made of reeds, while larger 
structures were built of small uncut stones, sun-dried brick, or blocks 
of adobe. Their knowledge of weaving, pottery-making, and decora- 
tion was surprising. They wove from native cotton and llama wool, 
and their designs indicate changes brought about by time and other 
influences. The native dress consisted principally of a poncho shirt, 
a loin cloth, and sandals, with occasionally a simple head-gear. 
The pre-Columbian Peruvians of the coast knew the uses of gold, 
Fic. 52.—Indian hut and inhabitants, with a ruin-covered hill known at 
Llaxwa, in the rear, located in the Sierras, south-east of Nasca, Peru. Photo- 
graph by Hrdliéka. 
silver, and copper, and worked these metals to some extent, especially 
copper or “ bronze ” in the manufacture of weapons. Their common 
weapons were a metal or stone mace, a wooden club, a copper axe and 
knife, the sling, and in some regions the bow and arrow. Their imple- 
ments were the whorl, weaving sticks, looms, cactus-spine or bone 
needle, bone needle-holders, sharpened sticks, copper knives and axes, 
hoes and fishing paraphernalia, including nets, sinkers, reed-bundle 
boats or balsas, and peculiar rafts which were paddled. 
Throughout the whole territory along the coast the people de- 
formed the heads of their infants by applying pressure to the fore- 
