INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 113 



that could be made out. This axe was doubtless a costly one at the time it was made, and the 

 families successively owning it may never have had the oiDportunity or means to obtain a better. 

 The durability of such a tool, it should be remembered, is almost eternal. Five thousand years 

 could make little impression upon it. If not lost, there is nothing to prevent its appearance in 

 a museum after the lapse of fifty centuries, and without any sensible change from its present 

 ajipearance. 



The studs for confining the cord fastenings to their places, show that it does not belong to 

 the primitive class of metallic axes, since they had no such useful feature. These projections, 

 too, are interesting in another point : they make us acquainted with a device that was inter- 

 mediate between the first rude contrivance and the final one for securing the handle to the 

 blade by insertion. 



As the ancient Peruvians discovered tin, and employed it somewhat extensively to harden 

 copper, this axe probably dates from a period anterior to that when bronze ones were first made. 

 It is difficult to suppose that such a people would continue to make blades of soft copper when 

 they had tin in abundance to render them so much more efficient. 



Stone and copper axes are medallions of the arts in the first and second cycles of human 

 progress — the very best that we could have, for they furnish more definite ideas of the early 

 condition of our species than volumes of printed speculations. The stone axe is erroneously 

 associated in the popular mind with the felling of timber ; but certainly a tree was never cut 

 down by it. The thing is evidently impossible, when the material of the tool, its thickness, and 

 blunted edge are considered. When not used as a weapon, the chief employment of the stone 

 axe was as a wedge to split wood^ and as a scraper to dig into and remove the charred parts of 

 trees and timber. It made no impression on the f irest, and hence the log-hut was unknown in 

 the age of stone. When it was desired to prostrate a trunk, or to scoop it out for a canoe, fire 

 was the chief operating ag'ent. All the cutting of wood before metals were introduced was con- 

 fined to carving and whittling by obsidian knives, flints, and shells. 



The revolution that began with the introduction of axes of copper was only less than that 

 caused by those of iron. Wood could then be cut and chopped, though but rudely and feebly. 

 The superiority of the new instrument was, however, palpable : it was smaller and heavier 

 than its predecessor, and hardly one third as thick in the blade; while the cutting edge, when- 

 ever blunted or bent, was readily sharpened and made straight. It was not liable to fracture ; 

 while a gap in a stone one, if not fatal, reqviired weeks of labor to bring up a new edge by 

 abrasion. But, after all, it is difficult for us correctly to imagine how vast an amount of labor 

 was expended in wielding co^Dper axes, and with what slender results. A stone axe tells us at 

 once the condition of peoples who had none other, and one of copper is a true index of the arts 

 wherever iron is not known. It is, then, no wonder that, from the day this half of the globe 

 was opened to the other half, the eager demand of the aborigines for cutting-instruments of 

 steel has not ceased. 



The remaining articles figured on this plate were found near the village of San Jose, on the 

 river Maypu, in Chile, by a party of laborers engaged in digging a canal. Human remains, 

 which crumbled to dust on exposure to the air, were disinterred with them. They are of 

 unusual interest. 



At the right of the axe is another copper implement nearly 3| inches long, one quarter of an 

 inch thick at the thickest part, three quarters of an inch wide at one end, and 1| inch at the 

 other. It is of pure copper ; it has been cast^ and the cutting end drawn out with the hammer. 

 Although called a chisel, on account of its shape, it has never been used as one ; there are no 

 marks of blows on its upper end. It was undoubtedly used as a knife, and so were all, or 

 nearly all, stone and metal implements of the kind. Their resemblance to our chisels has 

 naturally led many to consider them such. 



Adjoining the axe on the left, is a long and tapered tool seven inches in length, and one 

 eighth of an inch in thickness ; it is half an inch wide at one end, and one sixth of an inch 

 15* 



