206 



A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



1858-59. It may represent the vampire (Vampyrus spectrum}. Peter Martyr (An- 

 ghiera), writing at the time of the Spanish Conquest, said that on the Isthmus of 

 Darien the lives of men as well as of cattle were in danger from blood-sucking 

 bats. Alston, on the contrary, later declared the blood-sucking propensity of 

 these creatures to be mythical. 



Among Chiriquian gold figurines, representations of the bird dispute first place 

 with those of the frog. They are variations of one and the same kind of bird, 

 probably the sacred parrot that played an important role in the ceramic art of 

 this ancient people. It is characterized by a long hooked beak and tufts on the 

 head. The expanded wings and spreading tail suggest flight. For two reasons, 



the bird in flight 

 would be an excel- 

 lent subject from the 

 standpoint of the gold- 

 smith, viz.; its adapta- 

 bility as a breast 

 ornament and the op- 

 portunity it gave to 

 produce an apparent- 

 ly large figurine out 

 of a relatively small 

 amount of gold. 



The ornaments " ru- 



dely shaped like ea- 

 gles" that Columbus 

 saw among thelndians 

 of theVeraguan coast 

 were probably rep- 

 resentations of this 

 same macaw or parrot. 

 One of the Indians is 

 said to have had a gold eagle (parrot) worth twenty-two ducats. 



The largest of these bird forms (fig. 353) has a total spread of wing of 18.8 centi- 

 meters. The head, body and tail appear to have been cast in one piece. The 

 head ornaments and the wings were cast independently and welded on afterwards, 

 the effects of welding being plainly visible on the dorsal side. There is a broad 

 band about the neck made to resemble a series of wire strands, that bears an 

 incised zigzag pattern. One ring for suspension is situated on the beak and an- 

 other on the back of the neck. The head, neck and body are hollow and open along 

 the back, the figurine presenting an appearance of completeness only when seen 

 from the front. It is an alloy of copper and gold (six carats) with a little silver, and 

 is richer in some parts than in others. A similar piece is shown in figure 354 ; here 

 the tufts on the head each consists of the head and neck of a snake. 



In figure 355, the tufts are formed of three pairs of gold wires coiled at their 

 free ends. They show irregularities in casting. The wings and tail are beaten 

 out to a thinness of less than half a millimeter; the marks of hammering 



Fig. 353. Large image of a bird in an alloy of copper, gold and silver 



