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.
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
