tion of their use is forthcoming. These again are Mayan in type rather than Mexican.
In working stone, stone tools were alone employed, copper being quite unsuitable for the purpose. Of smaller works of art attention may be called to the specimens shown in Pl. XI, 3 and 4, which are carved in jadeite or some analogous material. The small seated figures in Fig. 22, and the carved plate in Pl. XI, 4, are particularly characteristic of Oaxaca. Fine alabaster vases were manufactured, especially in the Totonac country around Vera Cruz, the interiors being laboriously drilled out by means of a tubular drill, probably of bone or bamboo, 
Fig. 22.—Stone figurines; Mixtec. a practice also followed by ancient Egyptian lapidaries. Small mirrors, with a convex surface to reduce the image, were made from nodules of pyrites, and beads and pendants of all descriptions manufactured from jadeite and other translucent stones. Fine green jadeite, called chalchiuitl, was highly prized, and its use was allowed only to persons of high rank. Ornaments of this material were given by Montecuzoma to Cortés for transmission to the Emperor, and Diaz quotes his words as follows: "I will also give you some very valuable stones. . . chalchihuites. . . not to be given to anyone else, but only to him, your great Prince." Bead necklaces of this stone formed an important item of tribute from certain subject cities (Fig. 18, c; p. 118). In producing the smaller works of art from crystal, jadeite and amethyst, flint, and sometimes copper', points were
