ng
to their toil the moment they had done. Occasionally they stopped to
roll a cigarette or consult about their work, but they lost very few
moments in this way. They worked by the job and their prices were such
that they earned about two dollars a day each.

The first thing they made was a powder charger with a handle in the
shape of a dart (Fig. 2, Pl. XIX). Having cut in sandstone rock (Fig. 2,
Pl. XVIII) the necessary grooves for molds and greased the same, they
melted two Mexican dollars--one for the bowl or receptacle, and one for
the handle--and poured each one into its appropriate mold. Then each
smith went to work on a separate part; but they helped one another when
necessary. The ingot cast for the receptacle was beaten into a plate
(triangular in shape, with obtuse corners), of a size which the smith
guessed would be large enough for his purpose. Before the process of
bending was quite completed the margins that were to form the seam were
straightened by clipping and filing so as to assume a pretty accurate
contact, and when the bending was done, a small gap still left in the
seam was filled with a shred of silver beaten in. The cone, at this
stage, being indented and irregular, the workman thrust into it a
conical stake or mandrel, which he had formed carefully out of hard
wood, and with gentle taps of the hammer soon made the cone even and
shapely. Next, withdrawing the stake, he laid on the seam a mixture of
borax and minute clippings of silver moistened with saliva, put the
article into the fire, seam up, blew with the bellows until the silver
was at a dull red-heat, and then applied the blow-pipe and flame until
the soldering was completed. In the meantime the other smith had, with
hammer and file, wrought the handle until it was sufficiently formed to
be joined to the receptacle, the base of the handle being filed down for
a length of about a quarter of an inch so that it would fit tightly into
the orifice at the apex of the receptacle. The two parts were then
adjusted and bound firmly together with a fine wire passing in various
directions, over the base of the cone, across the protuberances on the
dart-shaped handle, and around both. This done, the parts were soldered
together in the manner already described, the ring by which it is
suspended was fastened on, the edge of the receptacle was clipped and
filed, and the whole was brought into good shape with file, sand,
emery-paper, &c.

[Illustration: