INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



133 



Figures z and a 1 are of stone-like texture, their capacity scarcely exceeding that of thimhles. 

 The first is only an inch high ; and the second one and a half, and two across the bottom. 

 Could they have hefin lamps ? 



Figure a 3, a pot or crucible cover; a fox's head imitated on the handle. 



To this ancient pottery I have added a modern Peruvian specimen, a 2, a small vase in my 

 ■possession. Its material, a red clay, is similar to that of the preceding. Particles of mica are 

 seen in both. It is rudely formed, ill burnt, and the ornamental work immeasurably worse 

 done than what the old potters turned out. 



There were a few other small matters intended for the preceding group of figures, but which 

 have been accidentally omitted. One was a whistle formed in the body of a small bird of baked 

 clay. The relic was very old, and the head missing. The tone was shrill and clear, and was 

 pleasantly modified by partially or wholly closing with the finger an opening in the breast. 

 There Avere also two whistles of cocoa-wood ; one gave a triple sound, and was little larger than 

 a thimble. 



On casting a parting glance over this graphic invoice of pottery, and bearing in mind that 

 only samples of the plates and saucers are inserted, it may appear surprising to some persons 

 that such numbers of fragile articles should have reached us, and without being damaged, after 

 passing through dark, turbulent, and indefinite periods of time. But there is something which 

 explains that, and is stranger, viz: that our knowledge of those who owned them should be 

 derived from their ignorance. By a superstition indigenous to all lands, people without records 

 have left their annals in their graves. In the belief that their wants and occupations would be 

 the same in the spirit land as they were here, they had their household and personal effects 

 interred with them. Every Inca had his cooking utensils in his cemetery; not only his gold 

 and silver ware, but, observes the native historian, "the plates and dishes of his kitchen." 

 We can scarcely regret the prevalence of a delusion which has been the means of making us 

 acquainted with the arts and habits of peoples, of whom we could otherwise have known little, 

 and posterity nothing — that is, by our making a proper use in this life of things which they 

 foolishly laid up for another. Indeed, those things seem intended by Providence as agents for 

 preserving a knowledge of the successive stages of human progress till barbarism is no more. 



Before passing to other matters, the following little group of ancient Peruvian pottery may 

 as well be introduced, although not included in the catalogue. It contains specimens only of a 

 large collection in the private cabinet of the Emperor of Brazil, which is also rich in Eastern 

 •Antiquities, including objects in bronze from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The whole is open to 

 visitors ; for, as a lover of science, as well as a gentleman of the purest morals, Pedro II stands 

 pre-eminent in the house of Braganza. Most of the vessels were ornamented in colors or relief. 



Ancient Pcruviiin Pottery. 



The first figure at the left, on the upper row, represents a small water-pot. It is almost a fac- 

 simile of one lately taken from an ancient tomb and presented to the Hon. Henry A. Wise. In 



