270 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xiv. 



aware of the existence of these Stars in Stone, no one seemed to 

 possess the least idea that they were so numerous, and so widely 

 distributed. 



In examining books upon the contiguous countries, I find 

 several references to stars in stone and in metal. Yet no traveller 

 appears to have been struck by their frequency. In the Report 

 of The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere during the years 1849-52/ in vol. ii, p. 138, figures are 

 given of two stars in bronze (found at Cuzco, Peru), one having 

 a sixth ray prolonged into a hatchet, which suggests that it must 

 have been a war-club, or battle-axe. In Squier's book on Peru ^ 

 (p. 177), there is a figure of a six-rayed object in bronze, said to 

 have been one of several, which are designated by the Author 

 (apparently following some earlier writer) casse-tetes, and he says 

 that among the fractured skulls that were found "the larger part 

 seemed to have been broken by blows from some such weapons." 

 M-ons. Wiener, in his book on Peru and Bolivia,^ gives a figure of 

 a star which was found at Ancon (near Lima), shewing a stick 

 inserted in the central hole ; and another figure of a somewhat 

 similar form in bronze, also handled. Like Squier, he calls them 

 casse-tetes."^ Finally, the Doctors Reiss and Stiibel remark, in 

 their magnificent work upon the Peruvian Antiquities obtai^ied 

 at Ancon, ^ that "the few stone objects found here shew but slight 



1 By Lieut. J. M. Gilliss ; 4to, Philadelphia, 1856. 



2 Pertly Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Iiicas, by E. George 

 Squier, M.A., F.S.A., late U.S. Commissioner to Peru; 8vo, New York, 1877. 

 Squier says at the same page "if weapons of stone were ever found here, I failed 

 to learn the fact." In this passage, he is speaking of Northern Peru, close to the 

 frontiers of Ecuador. 



3 Peroa et BoUvle, Paris, 1880, p. 685. M. Wiener was sent in 1875-7 to Peru 

 and Bolivia to collect antiquities, and he obtained a large number of objects. It is 

 noticeable that in the hundreds of engravings in his book only about half-a-dozen 

 things in stone are figured. 



4 This expression, freely translated, means '■nut-crackers.'' 



5 The Necropolis of Ancon in Peru, by W, Reiss & A. Stiibel ; London &, Berlin , 

 3 vols., folio, 1880-1887. 



