Amulets of Primitive Peoples Kunz: Magic of Jewels Page 405



	350 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS disproportionately long beak. The details of the bird-form are but roughly indicated, what is supposed to represent the head and body being but a trifle larger than the beak. In the region of the neck, marked by a peripheral incision, there is a hole through which a cord for suspension was probably passed. The type resembles that of the Chiriquian gold parrots, and differs from that of the amulets of Las Guacas, Costa Bica. As a much larger number of jade objects have been found at this latter place than occur at Chiriqui, it has been conjectured that the common source was a deposit of jade somewhere in Costa Rica.³ Chiriqui has also yielded a plain, highly-polished amulet of pale green jade ; the front is convex and is traversed by a groove; a small hole has been pierced near the top to facilitate suspension. The South American Indians had a class óf stone love-amulets, representing more or less clearly two embracing figures. It was claimed by their magicians that these had not been cut or fashioned in any way, but were so formed by nature, and were endowed with the power of attracting to the wearer the love of the chosen object of affection. These special amulets bore in the native language the names of huacanqui and cuyancarumi. They were said to be found buried in the earth where a thunderbolt had descended, and were thus a particular class of the so-called "thunder-stones," and a high price could be obtained for one, more especially if the owner had to deal with a woman. A characteristic specimen, presumably from Ecuador, is of black serpentine.⁴ ' George Grant McCurdy, Ph.D., " Δ Study of Chiriquian Antiquities," New Haven, Conn., 1911, p. 42, figs. 45 and 49; Mem. of the Conn. Acad, of Arts and Sciences, vol. iii, March, 1911. ⁴R. Verneau and P. Eivet, "Ethnologie ancienne de l'Equateur," Paria, 1912, vol. vi of Mission du service Géologique de l'armée pour la mesure d'un arc de méridien equatorial en Amérique du Sud, 1899-1906, pp. 222, 223, Plate XIII, fig. 4.