were the only aborigines who had a regular circulating medium or metallic money; but Squier describes Chimu coins both of gold and silver. The ceramic art is one of the first domestic industries which signalizes the transition of a primitive people from a nomadic to a sedentary life, and much time must elapse before it begins to employ the metals for similar purposes. Having seen that the Chibchas knew not only how to fuse and alloy gold and copper but to cast and forge them into various intricate if not beautiful forms, we might confidently expect to find them well advanced in the manufacture of earthenware. And such, delineation. The correct and chaste outlines of the water-bottles found near Fontibón are remarkable. Perhaps the masterpiece of this collection is the so-called "God of Silence," two and a half feet high, from the ancient territory of the Guatavitas. A plate suspended from the nose covers the mouth, and the image was most probably placed in the gate of the temple to impose silence, or may have served this purpose in the initiation into some mysterious rite or order of their religion-an interpretation which Codazzi has given to similar statues of stone found near San Augustín. Much of their pottery was ideographic, and a curious exposition has been made of a pair of identical bowls, united by a tube, so that any liquid poured into or abstracted from the one will reciprocally affect the contents of the other. On each vessel there is a toad, the Chibchan emblem of happiness, and surmounting both, a monkey, their symbol of generation. The whole has been said to represent matrimony. Thus the Chibchas learned, from natural laws, that prosperity and misfortune should be shared alike in wedlock. They were not happy in their portrayal of the human form. A notable artistic exception is observable, however, in the image found near Barragán, the ancient territory of the Pijáos. It represents a muscular woman with folded arms, wearing a nose-ring, necklace, and bracelets, and seated upon a rude pedestal with four legs and a bear's head. A certain air of complaisance would seem to proclaim her a cacica. The Indians who dwell FIGURE FOUND NEAR DARRAGAN. to-day upon this bleak and inhospitable cordillera wear hoods like that indicated upon this figure. The hollow idols of baked earth which the priests deposited by the roadside as receptacles for the golden offerings of pilgrims were called by the Spaniards gazofilacios, which were made in the form of pachyderms with almost human faces. The bodies are two feet long, with a circular opening in the back of each, covered by the second head, through which the offerings were introduced. The Chibchas made musical instruments of baked earth, from which a hollow yet not unpleasing sound is emitted. Their gamut. would seem to have been limited in extent, since, from a number of specimens, but three distinct tones have been produced. Doctor Crevaux relates that in his navigation of the Orinoco he encountered a village of Guahibos upon their general painting day. He adds that this operation was effected by applying to the naked person wooden stamps dipped in rocou, thus executing the process of wood-engraving upon the human skin. A similar practice obtained among the Chibchas; but their stamps were made of baked earth, and were also employed to decorate other pottery with their corresponding bas-reliefs, by application, accompanied by pressure, to the unburnt clay. Ours has not improperly been called the day of "high artistic craze," in which sober intellects become disordered over an Etruscan vase, an Egyptian water-bottle, a bit of Spanish faïence, of Palissy or of Henri Deux crockery; and the most prominent characteristic of this pretended art epidemic is the renewal of old forms and styles of decoration to such a degree as almost to constitute, in this, the nineteenth century, a second though spurious Renaissance. Our republican simplicity has become sorely affected by the disease, and in order to find favor among us objects of art or luxury must hail from beyond the seas. If from Mycenae or Idalium, though it be never so unsightly, it will acquire additional value; and the discoverer of Troy and the excavator of Cyprus are assigned a place among the heroes of Arctic research 1 Of interest in connection with this paper is the following letter, written by William H. Prescott to the historian Acosta, which has been sent to us by Lieutenant Lemly. The original is pasted in the back of one of the volumes of Prescott's "Conquest of Peru presented by Acosta to the National Library in Bogota.EDITOR. BOSTON, August 28, 1847. MY DEAR SIR: I received by the last steamer your letter in which you give me an account of your historical labors in respect to the ancient race of the Muiskas, and to the occupation of the country by the Spaniards. At the same time you place at my disposal your rich collection of original materials for the illustration of this subject. and the explorers of the "Dark Continent." Now the writer would not detract from their just fame, nor from the importance of their great work- the popular concern therein is only unreasonable in so much as it withdraws attention from our own shores. For if, as Squier writes of the antiquities of Peru, "even the physical features of the ancient inhabitants — their architecture, arts, customs, and religious notions find illustration and record in these fragile yet almost imperishable remains," they can no longer be considered mere curios of a remote past, but become the only means of supplying what history and tradition have failed to transmit, and as such are pregnant with meaning and interest.1 Henry Rowan Lemly. nal documents from the public archives and private libraries in the different capitals of Europe, and especially of the peninsula. But now that I consider this collection labors that I have scarcely any use of them. Whether this as complete my eyes are so much enfeebled by my literary will deter me from accomplishing my object I cannot now say, though my progress, at all events, must necessarily be very slow. For these reasons it will not be in my power, as you perceive, to avail myself of your disinterested offer; and can only wish you the success you deserve in the prosecution of your enlightened labors to exhibit the history of a race which seems to have been inferior to none other on the American continent in civilization and historical interest. I am deeply sensible of the compliment conveyed by this offer, and of the generous spirit which prompted it, for I well know how hard it is for the scholar to part with materials which he has assembled with so much care, cost, and difficulty. But I have now a great historic work before me which must engage my exclusive attention (if I have the health to pursue it) for many years to come. This is the reign of Philip the Second of Spain, for which I have been several years collecting a large mass of origi- SEÑOR DN. S. ACOSTA, etc. [Up to this point the letter was evidently written by a female amanuensis. Here follows the handwriting of Prescott, small and somewhat illegible, but perhaps characteristic, indicating rapidity and firmness.] I pray you, my dear sir, to accept the assurances of the esteem and gratitude with which I remain Your obt. sert.. WM. H. PRESCOTT. AY, he hath stolen her sweets and gone; Ah, sad so white a breast should lie, The robber bee, upon his quest For honeyed booty, from the breast Of yon fair lily now hath flown. In vain the south wind wooes; In vain the ringdove cooes; Like unto some pale maid Her nectared bosom pillaged and undone. With all its stores of virgin sweet, Thus to be prey for plundering feet, And spoil for any wanton eye! Yet many a bosom chaste Beneath a far, serene, and mocking sky. James B. Kenyon. ENGRAVED BY T. COLE, FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE. PORTRAIT OF VERROCCHIO, BY LORENZO DI CREDI. |