METAL. 



213 



There are other minor non-essential differences of detail. The Yale specimen, 

 for instance, has a loin-girdle and knee-bands, while the one described by 

 Holmes has nothing about the loins. On the other hand, the latter example 

 has an additional snake head attached to each foot and is not only larger but is 

 also framed in at the top and bottom by the customary broad flattened bars 

 of gold. 



The ingenuity of the ancient Chiriquian goldsmith was expended not only on 

 these skilfully executed pieces but also on masses of native gold that gave sugges- 

 tion of the human form or parts of it. Figure 363 is an example. It represents a 

 seated figure with outstretched arms, clothed in a broad loin-cloth and cap. The 

 cap was evidently welded on ; the loin-cloth and arms may have been also. The 

 unevenness of the surface, particularly on the back, has been removed by grind- 

 ing. A somewhat similar piece is repro- 

 duced in figure 364. 



Perhaps the most important and re- 

 markable divinity of this series is the 

 specimen with a human body and alli- 

 gator head, illustrated in Plate XLVIII 

 (fig. g). Although the figure is large and 

 in an elaborate setting it is made of rich 

 yellow gold. As far as the eye is able 

 to discern, the whole was run in a 

 single mold. The alligator-god standing 

 erect in the center is framed in by a 

 broad thin bar at the top and the bottom, 

 by a snake on each side and an alli- 

 gator head at each of the four corners. 

 The conception is original and skilfully 

 executed. The ears are serpent heads. The mouth is wide open, revealing teeth, 

 and the snout is coiled downward on a level with the mouth, presumably to 

 protect it from breaking. In a previous chapter it was noted that the snout of the 

 alligator as painted on pottery was invariably recurved upward. The goldsmith's 

 favorite way of indicating the eye, viz., an elongated pellet surrounded by a 

 fillet or wire, the two ends being brought together at the outer angle of the eye, 

 is shown in the central figure. The same is true of the eyes in the four alligator 

 heads at the corners ; one of these is somewhat disfigured through faulty casting. 

 The teeth in each of these four heads consist of a series of four pellets resem- 

 bling scales rather than teeth. Attention should also be called to the fact that the 

 wires forming the snouts are coiled upward as is the rule in representations of 

 the alligator. The snake on each side bridges the distance from one alli- 

 gator head to the other, its tongue touching the snout of the upper and its tail 

 that of the lower. The anterior half of the snake on the right has been lost. 

 The group is intended to be seen from the front only ; hence the braiding of 

 three wires which form the snake's body does not appear on the back ; neither 

 do the pellets and fillets that represent eyes, teeth and jaws. There is also 

 no reducing of the irregularities due to casting, except for the hammering 



Fig. 363. 



Fig. 364. 



Fig. 363. Seated human figure fashioned from a gold 



nugget, '/i 

 Fig. 364. Standing human figure fashioned from a 



gold nugget. '/' 



