Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/253

Rh Another very striking group of Chimu works of art are the silver models cast in a single piece. Squier mentions a man and woman in a forest, the trees being like algarobas; also a child in a hammock swinging between two trees, and a serpent crawling up one, below a kettle by a fire of sticks. These can only have been intended as ornaments for rooms, but it is a mystery how they can have been cast without wax. Doubtless there was a substitute of some kind.

Warlike implements were lances, darts, and clubs fitted with bronze stars. Warriors carried an oblong shield of thick matting. Vast numbers of tools and agricultural implements in bronze have been found. There are chisels of various sizes with sockets for handles, hoes curved and flat, and knives.

Their textile fabrics were very fine and marked in a variety of patterns, for the coast people cultivated an indigenous cotton, the staple of which is unequalled for length combined with strength. Occasionally the cotton plants produced a boll of a rich nankin colour which was specially valued. The weavers had various dyes for the patterns on their fabrics, and produced tunics and cloaks of great fineness and beauty, often almost covered with thin gold and silver plates, with borders of blue and yellow feathers.

We conclude from the ruins of their buildings, their works of art, and the vast treasure that has been found, that the Chimu kept a court of