In the working of gold the Mexicans exhibited particular skill, and though great quantities of the wrought metal were found by the conquerors, yet a very small percentage of the enormous amount exported since the conquest has found its way into museums. The greatest treasure discovered at one time by Cortés was that amassed by Axayacatl, father of Montecuzoma. Of this Diaz writes: “Cortés and some of the captains went in first (into the treasury), and they saw such a number of jewels and slabs and plates of gold and chalchihuites and other great riches that they were quite carried away, and did not know what to say about such wealth.... When I saw it I marvelled, and, as at that time I was a youth, and had never seen such riches as those in my life before, I took it for certain that there could not be another such store of wealth in the whole world.” This treasure was subsequently found to be of the value approximately of one and a half million sterling. Another of the conquerors relates the finding of 480 oz. of gold in one grave. But the accounts of the workmanship of the various articles surpass even their number. We read of “a very rich necklace of golden crabs, a marvellous piece of work”; of “two birds made of thread and feather-work, having the quills of their wings and tails, their feet, eyes and the ends of their beaks, of gold, standing upon two reeds covered with gold, which are raised on balls of feather-work and gold embroidery, one white and the other yellow, with seven tassels of feather-work hanging from each of them”; and of a fish with alternate scales of gold and silver. Unhappily no such works of art as the two latter have survived. Grijalva describes the getting of gold by picking out the grains from river-sand; the collector storing them in his mouth and later melting them down on the spot in a pottery vessel, blowing up the fire by means of tubes of reed, as in Fig. 23, _b_. Gold was also washed from river-sand in small troughs, the water being poured on from gourds. This method was employed both on the east coast and in the Zapotec region, but regular mining was practised by the Zapotec and Chinantec, and gold formed a very important article of tribute, both in dust and plates. The goldsmiths of Azcapotzalco were the most famed in the valley; and gold-workers in general were divided into two classes, beaters and casters. In beating, stone hammers were used for the most part, and the workmen were very skilful at overlaying with gold-foil (the spear-thrower shown on Pl. XVII, 1, has been ornamented in this way). Wooden beads overlaid with gold have been found in the Totonac country. Casting was carried out as follows: pounded charcoal was mixed with fine clay, and kneaded out into thin discs, on which the details of the desired ornament were engraved with a copper tool. Wax was then prepared by boiling, mixed with copal to give it firmness, and, after clarifying by means of a filter, was rolled out on a polished stone and