144 INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS. 



It is hard to concede that people who produced such wares as those figured on page 130 had 

 not realized the potter's wheel, or some other form of the turning-lathe; and yet no distinct 

 trace of it was apparent on any one article. At the same time, to outward appearance, the 

 sections of the vases presented almost perfect circles. To account for this uniformity, it has 

 been suggested that gourds and other vegetable shells were often used as cores or pattern-blocks 

 over which to apply the paste, and were burnt out in the process of baking. That the original 

 forms of vases are to be found in nature, is undoubtedly true ; but whether gourds were ever used 

 as moulds in the manner suggested is very questionable. It would be difficult to reconcile it with 

 the diversity of shapes, and with the remarkable uniformity observable in the thickness of the 

 material in many articles ; and then another difficulty would be, the unavoidable cracking of 

 the paste in drying, in consequence of the unyielding patterns preventing all shrinkage. More- 

 over, in most cases the natural type would be as useful and more durable than a brittle copy in 

 terra-cotta, for which it was to be sacrificed. 



There is evidence enough in works of old Mexican and Peruvian artists that they were no 

 more guilty of such a useless destruction of models and waste of labor than modern potters are. 

 That vegetable forms which relieve themselves, such as the fruit of the cup and saucer tree of 

 Equatorial America, a large kind of acorn, may have been employed, is exceedingly probable, 

 because one pattern would suffice for an unlimited number of copies. Still, one side only of a 

 copy could be thus produced. To complete the device, a moixld consisting of two parts, one 

 convex, the other concave, between which to press the paste, was required ; and it is demon- 

 strable that artificially-made moulds of the kind were employed in Mexico and Peru. There 

 are numerous flat vases, figured and plain, which have been made in halves, each formed in a 

 mould, and the two united while the clay remained plastic. Most of the vessels which were too 

 small for the introduction of the hand were thus formed, the junction being seen quite distinct 

 in such as have become broken. The flat vessels j j' and d d' (page 130) were made in halves 

 and thus united, and most likely i also. I think it doubtful if there are more than two or three 

 articles in the group that were not shaped more or less in moulds. We have ancient vases on 

 Plate IX, of which the lower and widest parts were fashioned in moulds, and the narrower 

 parts of the bodies and necks gathered in by the fingers, whose marks contrast with the smooth 

 and uniform moulded surface. 



The testimony of early writers is confirmed in several interesting particulars by the figures 

 on page 141. There were three things instituted by Manco Capac, by which his male de- 

 scendants were to be distinguished : 1. Shaving the head, and leaving (like the Chinese) a 

 single lock or cue. 2. Wearing large ear ornaments ; and 3. The Llautu, a head-dress com- 

 posed of a long and narrow striji of cloth of divers colors, wound round the head in the manner 

 of a turban. 



That the operation of removing the hair was tedious and painful, we learn from one who had 

 undergone it. The incident shows how wealthy young jiagans valued the same instruments of 

 the toilet as our juvenile fashionables. Garcilasso remarks, that the shaving, or shearing, was 

 performed with much difficulty by sharp flints; " whence it was, that a certain young Inca said 

 to one of my school-fellows, with whom he was taught to write and read, that had the Sj^an- 

 iards introduced no other inventions than scissors, looking-glasses, and combs, they had deserved 

 all the gold and silver which the coimtry produced." We know from other sources that 

 nothing like scissors was previously known to the Peruvians, and hence it is no wonder, that 

 the easy and rapid manner in which they operated should have elicited general admiration. 

 Their metallic mirrors, made with great toil, and constantly losing their polish by the action 

 of the air, were gladly superseded by those of glass. The fancy horn and ivory combs of 

 Europe were also vastly superior to the native wooden ones, of which many were simply 

 thorns inserted into short lengths of cane. 



