Considering all these arguments, I arrive at the conclusion that the ornaments are, in the main, genuine antiquities, and that, if any deception at all has been practiced, it is to be laid at the door of modern goldsmiths and speculators, who, according to Mr. McNiel, are known in a few cases to have “doctored” alloyed objects with washes of gold with the view of selling them as pure gold. I present the following specimens with a reasonable degree of confidence that all, or nearly all, are of purely American fabrication, and I sincerely hope that at no distant day competent archæologists may have the opportunity of making personal observations of similar relics in place. The objects consist to a great extent of representations of life forms, in many cases more fanciful than real and often extremely grotesque. They include the human figure and a great variety of birds and beasts indigenous to the country, in styles resembling work in clay and stone of the same region. My illustrations show the actual sizes of the objects. [Illustration: Fig. 26. Human figure with ridged crown, formed of copper-gold alloy.] _The human figure._--Statuettes of men and women and of a variety of anthropomorphic figures of all degrees of elaboration abound. Fig. 26 illustrates a plain, rude specimen belonging to the collection of J. B. Stearns. It was obtained by Mr. McNiel from near the south base of Mount Chiriqui. The body is solid and the surface is rough and pitted, as if from decay. In many respects it resembles the stone sculptures of the isthmus. The metal is nearly pure copper. A piece exhibiting more elaborate workmanship, illustrated by Bollaert,[19] is shown in Fig. 27. Another remarkable specimen is illustrated by De Zeltner, but the photograph published with his brochure is too indistinct to permit of satisfactory reproduction. He describes it in the following language: The most curious piece in my collection is a gold figure of a man, 7 centimeters in height. The head is ornamented with a diadem terminated on each side with the head of a frog. The body is nude, except a girdle, also in the form of a plait, supporting a flat piece intended to cover the privates, and two round ornaments on each side. The arms are extended from the body; the well drawn hands hold, one of them a short, round club, the other a musical instrument, of which one end is in the mouth and the other forms an enlargement like that of a flute, made of human bone. It is not probable that this is a pipe. Both thighs have an enlargement, and the toes are not marked in this little figurine.[20] [Illustration: Fig. 27. Grotesque human figure in gold, from Bollaert.] [Illustration: Fig. 28. Rudely shaped and finished human figure in gold.]