H0LMES.1 BRONZE BELLS. 49 



ages, made of wire neatly coiled and welded together by pressure or 

 hammering. The eyes are globular and are encircled by the ends of 

 a double loop of wire which extends along the back and incloses a line 

 of minute balls or nodes. The peculiar wings and tail will be best un- 

 derstood by referring to the illustration. The foundation metal is much 

 corroded, being dark and rotten, and the plating of reddish gold seems 

 to have been coated with a thin film of yellow gold. The profile view 

 gives a good idea of the thickness of the metal and of the relief of 

 the parts. Two rings or loops of doubled wire are attached to the 

 extreme end of the nose and a heavy I'ing for suspending is fixed to 

 the under side of the head. 



Miscdkmeous. — Gold, pure and in tlie usual alloys, was also used 

 in the manufacture of other articles, such as bells, beads, disks, 

 balls, rings, whistles, thimble shaped objects, and amulets of varied 

 shapes. Bells are more generally made of bronze, because, perhaps, 

 of its greater degree of resonance. Thin jjlates, or rather circular 

 sheets, of gold leaf are numerous. One mentioned by BoUaert was 

 7i inches in diameter. They are plain or crimped about the mar- 

 gins, indented in various ways, and sometimes perforated, apparently 

 for suspension or attachment. Merritt mentions examples having 

 holes which sIkiwimI evidiMiccs of wi-ar upmi dih' siilc luily. indicating 

 attachment in a HmmI [lositinn tn soiuc olijni oi' l<i smiic part of the 

 costume. But (hic cxampli' is at liaml. a lliiii slicct. tln-cc inches in 

 diameter and crimped or indented neatly about the margin. Its thick- 

 ness is about that of ordinary tinfoil. 



Bdls. — Bells seem to have been in pretty general use by the more 

 cultured American races previous to the conquest. The form best 

 known is the hawk bell, or common sleighbell of the North. The 

 globular body is suspended by a loop at the top and is slit on the under 

 side, so that the tinkling of the small free pellets of metal may be audi- 

 ble. Such bells are found in considerable numbers in the graves of 

 Chiriqui, although I have no positive assurance that any of the ex- 

 amples in my possession were actually taken from graves which con- 

 tained typical Chiriquian relics of other classes. The specimens now 

 in the National Museum (Fig. 41) are inmost cases, if not in all. of 

 bronze, as determined liy Mr. R. B. Riggs, of the chemical labora- 

 tory of the United States ne(jl()-iral Survey. All have been cast in 

 molds. In most (■ase^ tl,,T,. aiv ti-aces of a plating of gold. The 

 largest is 1} inclies in liei^iit and three-fourths of an inch in diameter. 

 It is surmounted by the rude figiire of an animal, through or beneath 

 the body of which is an opening for the attachment of a cord. Others 

 have simple 1(h)1)s at tlie f(i]). Tlie small ]iei-f(irated s|ieeunen belongs 

 to Mr. Stearns. Tliea.ldil i..iial |.ieee -iven in Fi-. |-.' is iini.|ue in con- 

 ception. ItreiJiv-eiitsa human head, whieli tak'esan iiuiTted Jjosition 



ETH 4 



