METALS.
The metals known to these nations were gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, and the alloy bronze. They were more or less acquainted with the reduction, smelting, and casting of these, and employed them both in the arts of utility and in those of pleasure (see Vol. I. pp. 97, 119) where they were suitable. As the most important in its industrial aspect, we shall begin with Bronce.—The use of this alloy by the Mexicans—to whom the know ledge of it was practically confined, for it continued to be little more than a curiosity to the Central American tribes—appears to have been almost limited to the manufacture of hatchets and chisels. Lance- and arrow heads are indeed not rare, but the use of obsidian for such purposes vastly preponderated.
The proportion of tin to copper in Mexican bronze is generally some what less than in the bronze of the Old World. The latter, as a rule, is ten per cent. of tin to ninety of copper, but in Mexico eight per cent. of tin was the maximum, and two to five per cent. the ordinary amount. This mixture, however, rendered the tools sufficiently sharp to cut the softer woods with facility.
Bron.:c forms of bronze axes prevail in collections of Mexican antiquities, the one resembling in outline the colt of the Stone Age, the other with an expanding and curved cutting edge. An other very frequent form, probably a knife, is known as the Ian (pl. 7, fig. 7), from its similarity to the Greek letter T. Chisels of bronze are very rare (fig. 6). The question has been discussed whether the engraving on stone was accomplished by the aid of stone or bronze tools; but the extreme scarcity of bronze tools adapted for this purpose, and their entire absence in Yucatan, where the art of the stonecutter was most success fully prosecuted, render it almost certain that stone chisels alone were applied in this direction.
Other articles in bronze occasionally seen are nails, punches, adzes, and bells. The latter are abundant in collections. They do not have a
suspended clapper, but are similar to our sleigh-bells, the sound being produced by a ball of metal enclosed in a hollow casing.
Copper was applied to the same purposes as bronze, and it is doubtful if the Mexicans esteemed the latter more than the former, or understood its superiority for many industrial tools.
Gold was collected in the southern provinces of Montezuma's empire, and in rather large quantities if we may depend upon the statements of the early conquerors. (See Vol. I. p. r is.) Thus, when Cortes demanded a tribute of this precious metal, he obtained within twenty days the value of six hundred thousand crowns. The ornaments manufactured of it were head-bands, circlets for the head, beads, collars, and small figures as amulets.
In Yucatan, a level country without metallic deposits, neither gold nor any of the metals occurred except as imported specimens, chiefly ornaments and in small quantities. Copper, silver, and gold were all known and prized in Guatemala, but as ornaments only. Farther south gold becomes more plentiful, and numerous interesting specimens (for example, fig-. 31) have in recent years been obtained from the native graves at Chiriqui in Veraguas, on the Isthmus of Darien. Most of these were gold ornaments which had been worn by the person buried. They usually represent some human or animal figure, though square, oblong, triangular, and circular plates are also net with. Nearly all the golden figures are alloyed with copper. Some of the most pure are 2 I 0, and the least are not more than i r, carats fine. The alloy employed was not native, but was prepared artificially. The objects were cast, and some were finished by hammering. Others were prepared by imposing a gold thread on a plate of the same metal, the plate giving the background and the thread the figure desired in very low relief.