112 INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



Mexico, Central America, and Peru achieved their Lest works, there is little doubt that not a 

 few of their devices would be found new, and consequently more or less valuable to us. What- 

 ever may be said or thought of the barbaric splendor of Montezuma's and the Incas' establish- 

 ments, there was genuine ingenuity in the native mechanics of those days. Indeed, semi- 

 civilized manners and tastes have little to do with efficient devices and in-ocesses for working 

 metals and other materials, whatever they may have to do with the forms into which these are 

 wrought or the purposes to which they are applied. But there is no information on aboriginal 

 arts, however trifling, that is valueless; did it only reflect light on the workings of the Indian 

 mind, it would be of service, throwing practical suggestions out of the question. 



The following articles were broTight up from various depths beneath the surface, and in soil 

 that probably was equally calculated to preserve them as the catacombs of Egypt. 



Plate VIII. — Metallic Implements. 



The principal object represented on this plate is a copper axe, found in a great quehrada, in 

 the province of Atacama, Chile, not far from where the Caniino de los Incas diverges round a 

 hill called Tres Puntas, in latitude 26° 42'. This road commences near the city of Copiapo, 

 proceeds in nearly a straight line in a north by east direction until it reaches the base of Tres 

 Puntas, passes round the hill — 7,000 feet high — and resumes its former direction. It being one 

 of the great avenues opened bj^ the Incas into their conquered provinces, remains of Peruvian 

 manufactures have frequently been found on it as on others. This axe is an example. It is 

 believed to be Peruvian, as the old Chilenos had no knowledge of working the metals. No 

 such implements as those figured on the plate have been found in their burial-places. 



The metal of this axe has not been artificially alloyed. It has been cast, weighs three and 

 a quarter pounds, and has seen much service, as appears from its battered appearance and from 

 smoothly-worn grooves at the sides and edges where the handle was lashed to it. It was prob- 

 ably used, as we believe most such tools were, more in the manner of an adze than of an axe ; 

 that is, the handle seems to have been placed at right angles to the face of the blade, not 

 parallel to it. To the slight movement of the end of the handle that butted against the blade 

 the indentations at the sides may possibly be due, while the polished grooves at the edges are 

 obviously the effect of the play of the thongs that bound both together. The studs cast on the 

 edges below the T-like extension at the top constitute the most interesting feature in this axe, 

 because they inform us of a previous existing difficulty. They were designed to prevent, and 

 they effectually did j)revent, the lashings, and with them the handle, from slipping down below 

 their proper place. The cutting edge was kept in order by hammering. For an inch above 

 it, where the thickness of the blade begins to diminish, the whole is covered on both sides by 

 rough marks of rounded hammers, which were probably of stone. The effect of this is seen in 

 the metal being forced over the general surface at the sides ; and a further result is, that the 

 width of the cutting edge has been considerably increased from what it originally was. After 

 bringing down an edge with hammers, a finish was given by rubbing it on coarse and fine- 

 grained stones. A narrow border on each side of the extreme edge shows where the marks of 

 the hammer were thus obliterated. To a limited extent the cutting parts of these ancient tools 

 were rendered harder than the rest, an effect of their constant condensation by the hammer. 

 The surface is black almost as ink, but it apjjears to have suffered little or nothing from 

 corrosion. 



As the Peruvians had, long before the Conquest, bronze maces and axes into which handles 

 were inserted as in our hammers — specimens are preserved in several collections — it may be 

 inferred that this instrument belongs to a remoter period of their history. That it, and such 

 as it, were preserved from generation to generation by tribes remote from the capital after better 

 ones had been introduced there, is not simply probable — it is certain ; and hence the date of such 

 things cannot be determined by that of the huaca, or grave, from which they are taken, even if 



