Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/537

Rh we do not know. They also are of copper, but a close examination shows them to be unmistakably of drawn wire, the manufacture of which it is not pretended the pre-Columbian native knew. These specimens consist each of a single piece of wire, averaging four inches in length, and are flattened or beveled at both ends.

Besides the above specimens, this collection comprises two needles of copper, two objects of twisted copper wire, nine little bells, and two bronze chisels.

The two needles, like the specimens last described, are of drawn copper wire, and are so called because in one end there is an eye, while the other is slightly pointed.

The two twisted wire specimens consist of four pieces of very fine copper wire, six inches long, and neatly twisted about one another. The purpose they served is a matter of speculation.

Four of the little bells in this collection appear to be alloyed, but are we warranted, in the absence of knowledge as to where and how they were obtained, in ascribing them to pre-Cortesian art? They bear no evidences of oxidation to indicate great age, and I am disposed to regard them as the bells of which Sahagun speaks in the following quotation: "The goldsmith is an expert in the selection of good metal. He knows how to make of it whatever he likes, and does it with skill and elegance. He is conversant with all kinds of devices, and all this he does with composure and accuracy. He knows how to purify the ore and make plates of silver as well as of gold from the cast metal. He knows likewise how to make molds of carbon, and how to put the metal into the fire in order to smelt it." Farther on he says: "He who is a trader in needles casts, cleans, and polishes them well; he makes also bells, filters, punches, nails, axes, hatchets, coopers' adzes, and chisels."

No one will pretend that Sahagun here refers to the metal-smiths as they worked before the conquest. For thirty years he lived among the surviving natives, to study their language and record all that he could concerning their customs, mythology, and arts. He gives, whenever it is obtained, all hearsay testimony as to the civilization which the Spaniards destroyed, but the bulk of his work, excepting the twelfth book, which is devoted to a history of the conquest, is the result of a study of the natives as he found them. This is evident in this case from the fact that he enumerates molds of carbon, needles, filters, coopers' adzes, hatchets, and nails, none of which are mentioned by the chroniclers of the conquest. Dr. Philipp Valentini, commenting upon this quotation, says, "A few new features are cropping out in this enumeration of implements, which give rise to the suspicion that the goldsmith is described, not as he worked before the year 1521, but as he had perfected himself and enlarged his technical knowledge through the intervention of Spanish mechanics in the year