INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 147 



In these thin Images, it is seldom to be detected without difficulty, and sometimes the joints 

 elude close scrutiny. Hollow figures of the kind were anciently, and are still, somewhat com- 

 mon with Oriental silver-workers. I have seen Siamese specimens in which the metal is at least 

 as thin again as in the Peruvian one described — too thin, in fact, to preserve their forms, if 

 divested of the resinous substance on which they were chased, and which, therefore, is left in 

 them ; the soldering being necessarily more apparent than in the heavier Peruvian articles. 

 Much of the same kind of work was produced by Israelitish artists. They hammered, we are 

 told, gold and silver into thin plates, and then wrought them into embossed work. The 

 cherubim on the ark were light, hollow figures of the kind. Various are the references to 

 "beaten work," and "thin work," in contra-distinction to that turned out by the founder. 



The spreading of the softer metals into leaves by the hammer, undoubtedly preceded the art 

 of casting them into requisite forms. The mound-builders of North America fabricated rude 

 trinkets and implements, of native copper, in abundance, by "beating;" but, as yet, neither 

 hatchet nor ornament produced from the crucible has been discovered among the quantities 

 disinterred. 



Every other metallic work figured on page 141 is solid and cast. Those which could be moulded 

 in & pair of flasks obviously were so, as the practice is at this day with us. Marks of the meet- 

 ing of the two halves are as distinct as in articles in modern founders' shops, and invariably in 

 places where the little superfluous ridges could not be removed by abrasion. Of simple objects 

 thus made, little need be said. They are as the crucible left them, save what little polishing 

 some may have acquired by means which every artist possesses. No cutting-tool was required 

 in their fabrication, unless in making their patterns. Those, if of wood, were, of course, 

 wrought into shape by knives and edge-tools of bronze, shell, or stone — a task requiring no small 

 amount of patience and skill. But of this anon. 



The difiiculty lies in such things as figure A 1 and E, page 138, which has four sunken impres- 

 sions round the handle, and a wild cat in full relief on its end, which could no more be cast 

 in flasks in the ordinary way than figure I, of the same page, figure 8, page 141, and some 

 others. Then there is the inlaid work in the swell that divides the handle from the blade in A 1. 

 How were tlie recesses formed and filled without cutting-tools ? The same question arises on 

 contemplating the same kind of ornament in other figures of the same plate, and the golden 

 spokes in the silver head-piece, figure 8, and the bronze, silver, and golden bands round figure 

 15; on page 141. An explication, then, of the fabrication of this article, covers every difiiculty 

 presented by the rest — itincludes them all, and others, if such are extant^ still more complex. 

 The solution is in one word — Patterns of Wax. These, whether intricate in detail or plain, 

 but such as could not economically be produced from other substances, were modelled by hand, 

 buried in a mould of plaster or clay, which when dried was heated, the wax run out, and its 

 place filled with molten metal. The minutest finish was thus given to every essential part, so 

 as to require no subsequent carving — nothing but what the grindstone or polishing process 

 could impart. Inlaid material was bedded in the pattern, and consequently left in the mould, 

 and, surrounded (except at the surface) by the flowing metal, become inlaid in the latter. The 

 unsoldered joints in the band of figure 15, page 141, are thus accounted for. The golden spokes 

 and ear ornaments of figure 8 had the ends imbedded in the waxen type, which by that means 

 became equally embraced by and imbedded in the fused silver. The little transverse wires were 

 inserted in the models of figures 0, P, Q, T, page 138, and consequently retained the same 

 position in the metallic copy. This explanation accords with every ancient piece of work. 

 It removes every difficulty, and is the only one I can conceive that does so. 



Patterns wrought out of plastic materials were obviously the best of all possible substitutes 

 for those of wood, when proper and effectual tools for working the latter could not be had. 

 They were most easily made; cheap, simple, efficient; and such as our founders would unques- 

 tionably fall back on, were iron withdrawn from the earth. Expert in modelling we know the 

 old Peruvian artists were. They imitated in metal almost every native animal, bird, insect, 



