ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 77 



OBJECTS IN GREEN STONE. 



The collection made by Dr. Flint arid myself in Costa Rica contains sixteen 

 objects in green stone, chalchihuitls. First is No. 28,977, a large gorget or breast- 

 plate shaped like that called a hatchet by Squier.* It is of jadeite, finely polished, 

 and on one side elaborately engraved with the representation of a man. It is 

 difficult to conceive how such results could have been accomplished on this 

 extremely hard stone without iron tools. True, the ancient Americans had 

 instruments of very hard bronze ; and we well know the wonderful results still 

 achieved by the patient Indian with his drill of wood or reed and sand and 

 water.f Squier saw an Indian of Central America working in that manner. 



Next comes No. 28,991, a beautiful celt of light green jadeite of great hard- 

 ness, but wonderfully polished. No. 28,987 is a thin jadeite amulet three quarters 

 of an inch wide and not quite four inches long, with a hole for suspension. The 

 fine polish shows well the mottled graining of this specimen. No. 28,989 is an 

 irregular, lozenge-shaped amulet of clear green jadeite. In one end is a small 

 hole, drilled. No. 28,990, a fragment of a jadeite amulet, is a very pretty speci- 

 men of the mineral, in appearance much like the unworkcd piece, No. 28,992, 

 obtained at Culebra. The latter is 2i x 2J x 2 inches, of handsome light green 

 jadeite. The top and one end are smooth, like polished pebble ; the bottom and 

 one side were apparently sawed, possibly with copper wire and sand ;J the 

 remaining end and side show fracture. It looks as if the workman had sawed 

 down into a smooth block to the depth of about two inches, then cut horizontally 

 about the same distance, leaving the piece attached only at one side, finally 

 breaking it away by blows with a mallet. This violence probably cracked the 

 piece badly, as it was at first about eight inches long, according to the report of 

 the gentleman by whom it was presented, but was broken by the children, whose 

 plaything it was. A chip about half an inch thick, which was nearly separated 

 by a crack when we obtained it, has since become detached. 



No. 28,982, a bead of dark green jadeite from Sardinal, is an inch and three 

 quarters long, and looks something like the jade ornament which holds the 

 feathers in the hat of a Chinese mandarin. 



No. 28,983 is an argillite bead two inches long. Numbers 28,980, 28,984, 

 28,985, 28,986, and 28,988 are all amulets in argillite. The first of them has on 

 one side a rude graven representation of a human figure. No. 28,981 is the 

 argillite ball from Sardinal, an inch in diameter, with a hole drilled a third of 



* The American Naturalist. May, 1870. Pages 180, 181. 



( See Prof. Charles Eau in Smithsonian Report, 1868, page 393. For account of stone drills found in New 

 Jersey see paper by Dr. Abbott, Smithsonian Report, 1876, page 320. 



J Professor Pumpelly thinks that the jadeite was probably so cut. 



