STOOLS. 161 



costa, where he saw an Indian woman from Chiriqui wading in the water in search 

 of Purpura. She would put the shell to her mouth and blow into it, causing the 

 snail to discharge a greenish yellow fluid, which she applied to white cotton thread. 

 The fluid in drying turns to purple. 



This industry was met with recently in Tehuantepec, southwestern Mexico, by 

 Professor Eduard Seler, who while there obtained a petticoat or tunic (Span, enaguas), 

 which the Zapotecan women wear only on special occasions and which but few can 

 afford to own. The costliness of the garment is explained by the quantity of 

 snails that would be required to color it. The snails in question are not very 

 plentiful. They are taken from the water alive and spit upon (man bespucke sie). 

 The fluid emitted by the animal on account of this unusual treatment is collected 

 and the creature thrown back into the water. This is certainly a more econom- 

 ical process than the removal of the soft parts from the shell, customary in Ulloa's 

 time. Mrs. Zelia Nuttall 1 notes a survival of the purple industry in Mexico. 



The use of purple in the decoration of pottery is not only exceedingly rare in 

 Chiriqui, but seems to be confined to that culture area. The nearest approach 

 to it that I have been able to discover is seen on a vase from Mercedes (Costa 

 Rica) belonging to the Keith collection. Curiously enough the purple is employed 

 as a ground color on the piece in question, the pattern being produced by the 

 lost color process. The design is therefore purple, while the interspaces are 

 covered with apparently the same non-adhesive black that was used for a like 

 purpose on the lost color ware of Chiriqui. In the character of the paste and 

 the modeling, however, the specimen resembles neither of the two Chiriquian 

 wares, lost color and polychrome. 



Various Objects of Clay. 



The ancient artificers of Chiriqui left practically no architectural monuments. Their 

 fame must rest upon the achievements of the potter, the goldsmith and the sculptor. 

 In the mastery of clay they had few equals and no superiors on the Western 

 Hemisphere. This is shown in the infinite variety of form and perfection of the 

 modeling, in the painted as well as plastic decoration and the variety of uses to 

 which the product was put. The pieces already described were vessels either 

 for domestic use or for ceremonial and decorative purposes. In addition to this 

 general class, there are various objects of clay, such as stools, similar to those 

 executed in stone ;. spindle-whorls ; stamps ; small receptacles with removable covers, 

 that may have served as needle- or jewel-cases ; figurines or statuettes and musical 

 instruments, the latter including rattles and whistles. 



The genetic relationship between metates and stools was referred to in the 

 chapter on objects of stone. There is a series of clay stools that follow rather 

 closely the types executed in stone, except that they are more ornate, as might 



1 Putnam anniversary volume, 368-384, 1909. 



Memoirs Conn. Acad., Vol. III. 21 



