CHAP. XIV. 



PERUVIAN POTTERY. 



277 



eluding sentence evidently refers solely to fashioning stones for 

 building. In the older writers in general I find nothing indicating 

 that they had cognizance of a Stone Age ; and modern travellers 

 (so far as one can judge from casual references in their books) do 

 not seem to have given serious attention to this matter. Such 

 discoveries as may be made in the future, I anticipate, will confirm 

 the opinion that the most part of these objects and implements 

 in stone were already Antiquities at the time of the Spanish 

 Conquest ; and belong to an age long anterior to the times when 

 the Inca Tupac conquered the ^Kingdom of Quitu/ and Huayna- 

 Capac ravaged Imbabura. 



In the course of enquiries for stone implements, many other 

 things were brought, principally pieces of pottery. Metallic 

 objects were rarely offered, and seldom seen. I heard of but a 

 single little image in gold, and this could not 

 be had. Silver articles were nearly as scarce. 

 Even bronze and copper antiquities, when found, 

 are often melted down, .from the supposition 

 that they are alloyed with gold. The annexed 

 figure of the head of a silver pin is an example 

 of a class which was formerly common and is 

 now rare. The six-rayed star at the bottom of 

 this page, and the two hatchets upon page 278 (which were part of 

 a large ' find ' at Ouenca) are nearly all that I obtained in bronze. 



The popular idea of Peruvian (Ecuadorian) 

 pottery is derived from the grotesque black 

 ware that is found in most museums. Squier 

 says of this that the greater part has been 

 brought from the coast districts of northern 

 Peru.^ I saw little of it in Ecuador, and 



1 "It is safe to say that three-fourths of the pottery found in the museums of 

 Europe and America, and called Peruvian, came from the coast or near it, and of 

 this probably much the largest portion from the region ruled by the princes of 

 Chimu" (near Truxillo).— ^erw, pp. 177-8 



