3-074-499 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Gold ornaments from the graves of the Incas of Peru - ornament worn by Chiriqui Indians, 1883. Item from '...a very interesting and unique collection of gold ornaments from the "Huacas" or graves of the Incas of Peru. They were obtained by Senor Don Leocadio Maria Arango, of Medellin, during a residence of thirty years in that country, but have now passed into the collection of Lady Brassey... Gold, in the figurative language of the people, was the substance of "the tears wept by the Sun."... Fig. 6 [is] of a coppery coloured gold, and [was] worn by the Indians of the Chiriqui tribes, to the north or Cuzco. These tribes were known to each other and throughout the country by the animals they revered, in somewhat similar manner as England is now represented by the lion, Russia the bear, and France the eagle'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.