REVIEWS. 
277 
than we had ever felt it in the region of sugar-canes and bananas. About 
here, some of the trachvtic porphyry which forms the substance of the hills 
had happened to have cooled, under suitable conditions, from the molten state 
into a sort of slag or volcanic glass, which is the obsidian in question; and, in 
places, this vitreous lava — from one layer having flowed over another which 
was already cool — was regularly stratified. 
" The mines were ^nere weUs, not very deep ; with horizontal workings into 
the obsidian, where it was very good an& in thick layers. Round about were 
heaps of fragments, hundreds of tons of them ; and it was clear, from the 
shape of these, that some of the manufacturing was done on the spot. There 
had been great numbers of pits worked ; and it was from these " minillas," 
little mines, as they are called, that we first got an idea how important an ele- 
ment this obsidian was in the old Aztec civilization. In excursions made since, 
w^e travelled over whole districts in the plains, where fragments of these arrows 
and knives were to be found, literally at every step, mixed with morsels of 
pottery, and here and there a little clay idol. Among the heaps of fragments 
were many that had become weathered on the upper side, and had a remarkable 
lustre, like silver. Obsidian is called hizcli by the Indians, and the silvery sort 
is known as bizcli platera. They often find bits of it in the fields ; and go 
with great secrecy and mystery to Mr. BeU, or some other authority in mining 
matters, and confide to him their discovery of a silver mine. Thev go away 
angry and unconvinced when told what their silver really is ; ani generally 
come to the conclusion that he is deceiving them, with a view of throwing them 
off the scent, that he may find the place himself, and cheat them of their share 
of the profits — just what their own miserable morbid cunning would lead them 
to do under such circumstances. 
" The family -likeness that exists among the stone tools and weapons found 
in so many parts of the world is very remarkable. The flint-arrows of North 
America, such as Mr. Longfellow's arrow-maker used to work at in the land of 
the Dacotahs, and which, m the wild northern states of Mexico, the Apaches 
and Comanches use to tliis day, might be easily mistaken for the weapons of 
our British ancestors, dug up on the banks of the Thames. It is true that the 
finish of the Mexican obsidian implements far exceeds that of the chipped flint 
and agate weapons of Scandinavia, and still more those of England, Switzer- 
land, and Italy, where they are dug up in such quantities, in deposits of allu- 
vial soil, and in bone-caves in the limestone rocks. But this higher finish we 
may attribute partly to the superiority 
of the material ; for the Mexicans also 
used flint to some extent, and their flint 
weapons are as hard to distinguish by 
inspection as those from other parts of 
the world. We may reasonably suppose, 
moreover, that the skill of the Mexican 
artificer increased wheu he found a better 
material than flint to work upon. Be 
this as it may, an inspection of any good 
collection of such articles shows the 
much higher finish of the obsidian im- 
plements than of those of flint, agate, 
and rock-crystal. They say there is an 
ingenious artist who makes flint arrow-heads and stone axes for the benefit 
of English antiquarians, and earns good profits by it. I should like to 
give him an order for ribbed obsidian razors and spear-heads ; I don't think he 
would make much of them. 
" The wonderful similarity of character among the stone weapons found in 
Mexican arrow-heads of obsidian. 
