'Sept. 14, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



275 



the air have, however, had but little influence upon the 

 stone, pottery, and metal objects found in the Chiriqui 

 tombs, deposited there, as was the case throughout the 

 whole of America, by the mourning relatives, who in- 

 variably buried with their dead the implements, orna- 

 ments, toys, etc, which they had used during life. As 



from the tombs at Chiriqui, some simple vessels for 

 holding foods, cooking utensils, or drinking vessels, 

 others fashioned of baked clay in the strange devices of 

 the ornamental art of those primitive days, sometimes 

 rude representations of animals or reptiles, as, for 

 example, the frog (No. 6) in the accompanying engrav- 



Ornaments found in the Huacas of Chiriqui. 



in most of the North American mounds, articles made of 

 rough terra-cotta are more numerous than are the arms 

 and tools of stone and wood, and are only exceeded in 

 quantity by the ornaments made of gold, silver, copper, 

 and tin, and sometimes even of a skilful mixture of the 

 two latter, forming a good durable bronze. In the 

 Moseum at Washington there are more than four 

 thousand pottery articles of divers shapes, all collected 



ing, which we borrow from our courteous contemporary 

 La Nature. The metal images, idols, etc., have given 

 rise to some discussion as to whether they were made 

 by means of casting or by simple hammering ; the 

 generally accepted opinion at the present day inclining to 

 the theory that the artist had recourse to a method still 

 employed in some countries of the East, namely, that 

 he modelled his subject in some fusible substance, wax 



