Savages

An exhibit which usuaüy surprises the visitor at the National Museum in Washington is the group showing the American Indian working in silver at a forge of his own contrlvlng. Contrary to popular supposltion, the Indian is a very dover workman, in metáis. Somo oL the amulets, armlet and buttons found in the possossion of the far Western Indiana are of excellent finish and workmanship. The Indian Iove3 ornamenta and (elights to deck the blankets and buckakin robe of his young son with silver trinkets. His bullion is the Mexican dollar, and he uses a rude forge fltted with bellows made of buif:ilu skin. They generally have two pairs of bellows, which, being worked alternately, furnish a steady draught. Some of the designs wrought upon these rude silver buttons prove that the Indian is far from an unJmaglnative being. It is clear that he has more conception of the beauties of natui i than most of his critica would admit. The use of the blow-pipe is not unfamiliar to the Indians. They n us of it to braize the eyelets of button . The lamp wed for this purpose is very crude, consiating of a rag daubed with tallow, placed in an open dish of metal or stone. As the Indians have been gathered into reservations they have lost the use of even these rude mechanical arts, and the practice is now conflned to a few in the mountains of Northwestern Mexico. Here an occasional rude forge may still be found, and its output of forged silver trinkets still passes from hand to hand. DísIich are sometimes made of silver by hammering out a dollar very thin and then pressing it against a design already cut in stone.