Note 532 — Chapter CXIV

The ancient Peruvian silversmiths knew how to melt the metal, to cast it in moulds, to solder it, and to hammer it. For melting they used small ovens, with tubes of copper through which the air passed. The moulds were made of a clay mixed with gypsum, and the moulded figures were finished off with a chisel. They hammered out figures on the sides of open vases with wonderful skill, and soldered the parts with great art, after burnishing so that the points of junction can scarcely be discerned. They supplied the place of gilding by fastening very thin leaves of gold or silver to copper, timber, and even stone. They also extracted fine threads from the precious metal, and wove them into cloths. Unfortunately, all their best works were either destroyed by the covetous Spaniards, or concealed by the Indians themselves at the time of the conquest. Zarate mentions four llamas and ten statues of women, of the natural size, of the finest gold, as having been found at Xauxa; and all the ancient writers agree in their accounts of the vast number and great merit of the gold and silver ornaments of the Yncas.

The ancient pottery of Peru is very remarkable. The Indians imitated every quadruped, bird, fish, shell, plant, fruit, besides heads of men and women. All these varied forms were moulded in clay, and the vessels thus made were used as sacred urns to be buried with the dead, or for sacrificial purposes. Those for domestic uses were more simple. The material made use of was coloured clay and blackish earth, and the vessels do not appear to have been burnt, but dried in the sun. Many of these vessels are double, others quadruple, and even octuple, the principal vessel being surrounded by smaller appendages, which communicate with each other and with the principal vessel. When the double ones were filled with water, the air escaped through the opening left for that purpose, and produced sounds, which imitated the voice of the animal represented by the principal vessel. Thus, in a vessel representing a cat, when water is poured in, a sound like mewing is produced, and another gives out a sound like the whistling of a bird, the form of which is moulded on the handle. See some very interesting remarks on ancient Peruvian pottery, in Professor Wilson’s work. Prehistoric Man, i, p. 110.