26 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



A number of chisels or celts are shown of stone, generally basalt or 

 cliorite. Similar forms are presented in copper, which may have been 

 for hatchets or chisels. These appear to have been made by hammer 

 ing the copper rather than by casting. Interesting objects in this con 

 nection are the needles of copper wire. They are manufactured with 

 an eye in the head, but this is not obtained by piercing the material 

 itself, but by drawing out the wire at the head and twisting it back 

 again upon the body of the needle, leaving a small opening at the 

 extremity, which thus gives the aperture necessary in which to insert 

 the thread or string. Probably this form of a needle with an eye is the 

 only one which could be obtained on the American continent in objects 

 made from metal. In needles of bone the eye is not unfrequent, as in 

 Nos. 478 and 479 of this collection. 



The use of obsidian to produce flakes with a cutting edge is illus 

 trated by the presence of a number of nodules, from which the flakes 

 have been broken for such purpose. 



A large number of spindle whorls are exhibited from different parts 

 of the state. Many of these are in the -form of a double cone, which is 

 rather rare throughout Mexico, but extremely common in Michoacau. 

 Some of the examples are polished, others are without polish; a few are 

 painted. They are employed by running a piece of wood through the 

 aperture in their center, and they impart greater facility to the spindle 

 in the process of obtaining the thread from the material 5 sometimes their 

 surfaces are ornamented with various designs impressed on the soft clay 

 before burning. It should be added that it has been maintained that 

 many objects of this common form were intended to be strung upon 

 cords and worn around the neck as ornaments, and were not for the 

 more practical purpose of aiding the process of spinning. 



In the department of ornaments we find in this collection a number 

 of objects used for suspending in the ear arid to the lip, which members 

 are perforated so as to enable them to support such decorations. The 

 earrings found are somewhat like a shirt button, and may be made of 

 bone, metal, or stone of various character, instances of all of which are 

 presented. The labrets, or lip stones, are somewhat similar in form. 

 Some of them are of shell, others of metal, or of obsidian. Fragments 

 of shell of different shapes and sizes, perforated to be strung upon a 

 cord, are frequent; also angular pieces of copper and a few pieces of 

 amber, evidently intended for a similar purpose. Some good specimens 

 are shown of mirrors formed of obsidian highly polished on the surface, 

 so that the reflection of the countenance could easily be seen. A num 

 ber of bells of copper in the usual form found in ancient Mexico are 

 displayed; also quite a number of beads, some of copper, others of chlo- 

 ritic stone and of burnt clay. It is evident that these constituted a 

 favorite method of decoration of the person among the ancient Taras- 

 cos. Some of these beads are in the shape of tubes, made from pieces of 

 shell bored or perforated longitudinally. 



