118 INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



Witli other primeval inventions, the needle elicits little ohservation, it heing with things as 

 with persons: the showy and superficial push aside tlie unobtrusive and useful. To some 

 minds this fac simile of an instrument used hy Eve and her daugliters, and by their early 

 descendants, may appear too trifling an affair to be worth recording ; but few things offer in its 

 associations more agreeable instruction. In its progressive development, through wood, bone, 

 copper, bronze, and iron, into its modern steel representatives, and in tlie ameliorating and 

 refining influence it has exercised over our species, the needle lacks neitlier point to awaken 

 interest nor piquancy to keep it awake. 



The remnant of fine thread left in the eye is also connected with a subject that is equally 

 interesting. It presents an opportunity of explaining a remark of Garcilasso, which appears 

 irreconcilable with the fact that American spinsters twirled the spindle in a shelly gourd, 

 or hollow stone, resting commonly on the floor, or the lap. He observes that his countrywomen 

 carried their spinning apparatxis with them to social parties, and, like European and Asiatic 

 females, spun as they walked through the streets or into the country. Mentioning the difficulty 

 to tlie late amiable and able envoy extraordinary from Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Salvador, to 

 the United States, Don Felipe Molina, he removed it at once, by stating that the practice is 

 still kept uj) in those States, and particularly by Indian men, who are singularly industrious, 

 and who almost always thus occupj'' themselves when travelling with loads on their backs. 

 They whirl the spindle in a small cylindrical gourd, secured to the breast, or lodged in a pocket 

 of their jackets. 



Figure 17. A beautifully ornamented cap, knitted or woven out of Llama wool. It is stout, 

 and, except the color.? and figures formed by them, is in pretty good preservation. Two strong 

 cords, each a foot long and with a knot at the end, served to tie it under the chin. The diameter 

 of the crown is 5-| inches ; depth of the rim, two inches. The process of formation began at the 

 centre of the crown, as in Leghorn bonnets — the main threads extending outwards spirally. 

 A small opening is left in the centre, and doubtless with the same view as similar ventilators 

 are made in modern hats. The texture of the cap is very closely woven. Black, red or brown, 

 yellow, green and light green, are the colors that remain. 



Figure 18. A portion of the cloth in which the mummies were enveloped. It is worth 

 remarking on this fragment, that it has a feature more or less common in the fabrics wrapped 

 round Egyptian mummies, viz : in the different sizes of the yarns that compose the weft and 

 the warp. Tlie same thing occurs in some fine Navajo blankets which I have examined, though 

 the difference in them was not near so much as in this Peruvian Cere cloth. Another trait, 

 common to ancient and modern Indian loom-work, is, that two yarns were sometimes used in 

 the weft to one in the warp. 



Tlie head of i\\Q entombed family was no warrior, since no weapons were buried with him, 

 unless a sling (figure 19) netted from Llama's hair be one. One of the cords is 2-i feet long, 

 the other a foot shorter. It appears to have been little used, and is still strong enough to 

 answer the purpose for which it was wrought. This absence of weapons, and the presence of a 

 large number of domestic and industrial implements, is a pleasing and impressive cliaracteristic 

 of old Peruvian civilization. 



After the foregoing sheets were in the hands of the printer, the contents of another ancient 

 grave near Arica, which had been accidentally delayed, came to hand. As there was not time 

 to have suitable illustrations prepared, a brief description of the relics are subjoined, since they 

 are of too interesting a character to be wholly omitted. 



From the condition of some, if not all, they may be centuries if not decades of centuries old. 

 They consist of movables of a family — of things that were never left behind on a change of 

 location. Valuable on earth, they were believed to be equally desirable in the land beyond 

 the setting sun, to which their owners supposed they emigrated at death. Here are ears of 

 corn, and grains carefully sewed up in a bag to plant tliere, with vessels in which to cook them; 



