Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/552

544 or pots, of peculiar make, and very uncommon. The traditions of this place are well preserved, and though the people are inhospitable, an archaeologist of perseverance could pass a most profitable season among the hills and in the valley of Tlacolula.

Some years ago, in this valley, a great discovery was made of a large number of copper axes; nearly a bushel of them were ploughed up, by a very intelligent friend of ours, Señor Fidencio Fenochio. Unfortunately, as they were of nearly pure copper, they were melted down, to be used in the reduction of silver. But our party secured a number, and the six that fell to my lot were the first, so far as could be ascertained, ever brought to the United States. Two of these went to the Smithsonian Institution, and four to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, at Cambridge. Upon analysis they proved to be almost unalloyed, the Smithsonian specimens containing 98.7 per cent of pure metallic copper, the balance being iron, arsenic, and antimony. Prof. F. W. Putnam, a high authority, describes these specimens, as well as all others known of American aboriginal copper ornaments and implements, in a paper which is unquestionably the most valuable contribution to our knowledge of the subject. Among the "axes" obtained by me were two of the shape of the Greek Tau, of pure copper and very thin. A figure of each type is here shown, reduced in size. Although the larger and thicker specimens