60 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 
(c) (PL XXXI, Fig. 3.) Club-head of basaltic lava, cylindrical, having four 
encircling rows of cone-shaped protuberances. Height 5.7 cm., diameter 8.4 cm. 
(Nat. Mus. of Costa Rica, No. 7708.) 
(7) (Pl. XXXI, Fig. 4.) Club-bead of white-spotted brown stone, ring-shaped, 
and provided with an encircling incision near the top. Height 4.6 cm., diameter 7 
em: (Cats No, Se) 
(ce) (Pl. XX XI, Fig. 5.) Club-head of gray serpentine (?), ring-shaped. Height 
4. cm., diameter 7.4em. (Cat. No. 24 as) 
(f) (Pl. XXXI, Fig. 6.) Club-head, ring-shaped. Height 5.1 cm., diameter 8 cm. 
(Nat. Mus. of Costa Rica, No. 8946.) 
(g) (Pl. XXXI, Fig. 7.) Club-head, ring-shaped, of brownish stone. Height 
2.8 cm., diameter 6.3 cm. (Cat. No. 4322.) 
(h) (Pl. XX XI, Fig. 8.) Club-head, ring-shaped, of gypsum. Height 2.9 cm., 
diameter 6.5 cm. (Cat. No. 4432.) 
(1) (Pl. XX XI, Fig. 9.) Club-head, ring-shaped, of basaltic lava. Height 3.1 
em., diameter 7.1 em. (Cat. No. 44338. 
h. Amulets. 
Under this term are included a large number of small, polished, ornamental 
stones of various shapes and colors, all pierced by holes, indicating that they were 
worn suspended on the body. As is well known, and is fully shown by the Maya 
and Mexican codices, monuments, and antiquities, it was the custom of the natives 
of Central America and Mexico to carry artistically sculptured stones as amulets or 
fetishes for protection against diseases or other evil influences. 
In the writings of the early Spanish historians much valuable information is 
given about the use of ornaments or amulets of precious stones amongst the ancient 
Mexicans. <A resumé of the subject has been given by Squier,” which is here repro- 
duced in its essentials. 
‘Amongst the articles of ornament used by the aboriginal inhabitants of Mexico 
and Central America, those worked from some variety of green stone resembling 
emerald, and called by the Nahuatl or Mexican name chalchiwitl, chalchihwite, or 
chalchiwite, were most highly esteemed, and oftenest mentioned by the early explor- 
ers and chroniclers. The word chalchiwitl is defined by Molina, in his ‘ Vocabulario 
Mexicana’ (1571), to signify ‘esmeralda baja,’ or an inferior kind of emerald. The 
precious emerald, or emerald proper, was called quetzalitztli, from the quetzal, the 
bird known to science as Trogon resplendens (the plumes of which, of brilliant metal- 
Squier, E. G. ‘‘ Observations on a Collection of Chalchiuitls from Mexico and Central America.’’ From the 
Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 1869. Reproduced in the American Naturalist, Salem, Mass., 
1871, p. 171. 
