60 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



hatehets of serpentine, diorite, and amphibolite ; also a series of mace 

 beads, some in the form of a ring, and others with conical points or 

 knobs. These were intended to be fastened to the extremity of a handle. 

 There were also hatchets of copper and bronze, and lance points and 

 arrow points of the same material. Among the objects nsed as 

 utensils, those of copper, principally chisels and awls, knives and hoes, 

 were especially noteworthy. It has been long known that the inhabi 

 tants of this portion of South America were acquainted with an alloy 

 of tin and copper from which they manufactured a great variety of 

 implements and utensils, the resulting metal compound furnishing a 

 hard substance capable of yielding a good cutting edge. 



There were six examples from the same part of the coast, of scales or 

 balances, which were attributed to the ancient inhabitants, and were 

 supposed to have been used in weighing gold and silver or other precious 

 substances. The beams were sometimes of wood, and several of them 

 were worked with a great deal of fineness and care. In one, the cord 

 which sustained the balances was ornamented with a row of rich beads 

 of colored stones and rude fragments of shell. These remarkable objects 

 deservedly attracted the attention of many visitors, as there is very little 

 evidence to show that in no other part of America any balances or 

 scales of such a character were used by the primitive inhabitants. It 

 is, indeed, open to question whether outside of the ancient Empire of 

 Peru the notion of estimating quantity by weight ever occurred to the 

 native American race. Certain it is that nowhere in Korth America 

 has any evidence been adduced to show that even the most highly cul 

 tivated nations distributed their produce or in any way measured the 

 amount of objects by means of weights. 1 



The sepulchers along the Peruvian Coast also contributed to this 

 exhibit a great number of domestic utensils, decorative objects, musical 

 instruments, vases, and figures in terra cotta; some of curious forms, 

 others representing animals, objects such as birds, alligators, snakes, 

 fishes, fruits, and so on. There were a great many vases of the double 

 form, some without handles, others intended as toys or as games. They 

 r ary in quality, but among them are many of the best style of art of 

 the natives. 



Passing on toward the south there were a large number of bolas 

 shown from Uruguay, the peculiar arm used by the natives of that State 

 in hunting; also, from various parts of South America, the precise local 

 ity not defined, numerous domestic utensils and industrial objects, a 

 number of mummies from the coast of Peru, a collection of skulls from 

 the coast and from the interior of the same country, textile materials, 

 clothing and garments, both modern and ancient, from the same region, 

 and an excellent collection of the military outfit of a warrior from Brazil. 



1 1 have discussed this subject in my Essays of an Americanist, pages 434, 449, Phil 

 adelphia, 1890, and also in the Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian 

 Society at Philadelphia, 1892. 



