International studio (81.1925)

mceRnAcioriAL

Chibcha civilization thus disappeared. This was to almost pure copper, with evidence that the

the last stronghold. workers added alloys to suit their tastes and the

In concluding the story of Spanish conquest a requirements of the object in hand,

fitting incident which reflects the disgust with Dr. Farabee's studies of the objects he brought

which the Indians came to behold the Spaniard is back from Colombia are minute; he says: "The

that involving Hatney, head Cuban chief. As the workmanship surpassed even the number of the

invaders entered Cuba objects. From Mexico

Flatney told his chiefs
resistance was of no
avail, that gold was
the god of the Span-
iard and wherever
gold was they were
sure to come. So he
collected all the gold
and cast it into the
sea. But the Span-
iards came, captured
the chief and con-
demned him to be
burned at the stake.
A priest begged him
to accept Christianity
and be baptized so
that his soul might go
to Paradise.

"Do the Spaniards
go there?" asked the
Indian.

"The good ones
do," the friar told him.

"Well the best of
them are bad—I pre-
fer to go elsewhere!"
And, stoically, the
poor heathen was
burned alive.

Gold was obtained
locally from the stream
beds and quartz lodes
by certain tribes and
exchanged with neigh-
boring tribes for other
necessities. There
must have been con-
siderable traffic in
gold dust and even in
gold objects as ac-

an account is given of
'two birds made of
thread and feather-
work, having quills of
their wings and tail,
their feet, eyes and
ends of their beaks of
gold, standing upon
two reeds covered with
gold which were raised
on balls of featherwork
and gold embroidery,
one white and the
other yellow.' A fish
is described having al-
ternate scales of gold
and silver.

"The technique is
most interesting. In
the simplest case a
single gold nugget is
hammered into the
form of some desired
object. Other nuggets
may be hammered
into plates of thin
sheets and cut to suit
the purpose. Many
objects have the ap-
pearance of having
been soldered but
when they are broken
they show a rough
fracture with pitted
granular surfaces
which are character-
istic of casting. It is
evident that a model
has been built up of
some plastic substance
such as wax or resin.

counts are given of the gold image, nine inches high, from quimbaya T}le same process

markets "where seems to have been in

people sell gold and near them are they who trade use from Mexico to Peru. It is known as cue

in jewels mounted in gold in the form of birds and perdue and is as follows: powdered charcoal was

animals." The quality of the gold of which the mixed with clay and molded into the desired form,

objects are composed varies. In a few cases there Prepared wax was then applied and the whole

is an alloy of silver but in most cases the alloy is covered with powdered charcoal and clay. A

copper. The quality varies from almost pure gold connection with the wax model was made by

two seventy-ei?ht

july 1925