applied in small strips to the details of the design. Pounded charcoal in solution was added as a covering, and, over all, a coating of clay, also mixed with charcoal. A rod of wax, coated with clay, was added, to form a connection with the wax model within. The whole was baked, the wax run out and the molten gold poured in. Finally the mould was broken, and the casting rubbed with earth mixed with salt, to give it a good colour, and then polished. Objects so prepared often have the appearance of soldered wire, but, in such specimens as the ring shown in Fig. 24, the reverse side plainly shows that the greater portion has been cast solid. In the case of the gold ear- or lip-ornament from Tehuantepec (Pl. XI, 5), some of the details appear to have been soldered on after casting. We are told that the designs applied to beaten gold by engraving were usually traced for the goldsmiths by the feather-workers. [Illustration: Fig. 24. Gold finger-ring (_scale ²⁄₁_).] [Illustration: FIG. 25.--Feather-work mantle (_Berlin_). (_After Seler_)] Of this feather-work (Fig. 25) very few specimens remain, but the description of the methods employed in its manufacture have been preserved in the nahuatl text of Sahagun and translated by Seler. Diaz writes of fine fabrics covered with feather-work made by women, and brought daily “from some towns of the province on the north coast near Vera Cruz called Cotaxtla, close by San Juan de Ulua.” In the valley the most renowned feather-workers were the inhabitants of the Amantlan quarter of Mexico, who worshipped gods of their own, and prided themselves on their descent from early immigrants into the valley from the north. The implements used in the craft were a brush and colour-box for sketching designs, a copper knife and wooden cutting-board, and a bone spatula for attaching the feathers when cut into the required shapes. In some cases the feathers were simply sewn to cloth, but the more elaborate mosaics required a lengthier process. Cotton was applied to a strip of maguey by means of paste, and a coating of paste was painted over it; after drying, the cotton was peeled from the maguey and pasted to a backing of bark-paper: the design was carefully drawn upon it, and then cut out after the manner of a stencil, through which the design was traced upon a sheet of maguey, backed with cotton, or cotton backed with maguey. To the last a layer of the cheaper kind of feathers of the requisite shapes and colours was applied by means of the spatula, first the outlines in black, and then the body-colours and details. The foundation was then detached and fastened to a board, and the final layer, this time in precious feathers of similar colours, was added. The stencil was used as a check throughout the whole of the process. Every kind of feather ornament was made by these artists, including the elaborate back-devices worn by different ranks of warriors. For many of the latter cane frames were constructed, to which