From the foregoing account it is apparent that our knowledge of the art of ancient Chiriqui must for the present be derived almost entirely from the contents of the tombs. The inhabitants were skillful in the employment and the manipulation of stone, clay, gold, and copper; and the perfection of their work in these materials, taken in connection with the construction of their remarkable tombs, indicates a culture of long standing and a capacity of no mean order.
Of their architecture, agriculture, or textile art we can learn little or nothing.
The relics represented in the collection of the National Museum consist chiefly of articles of stone, gold, copper, and clay.
Works executed in stone, excluding the tombs, may be arranged in the following classes: Pictured rocks, sculptured columns, images, mealing stones, stools, celts, arrowpoints, spearpoints (?), polishing stones, and ornaments.
_Pictured rocks._--Our accounts of these objects are very meager. The only one definitely described is the “_piedra pintal_.” A few of the figures engraved upon it are given by Seemann, from whom I quote the following paragraph:
At Caldera, a few leagues [north] from the town of David, lies a granite block known to the country people as the piedra pintal, or painted stone. It is 15 feet high, nearly 50 feet in circumference, and flat on the top. Every part, especially the eastern side, is covered with figures. One represents a radiant sun; it is followed by a series of heads, all, with some variation, scorpions and fantastic figures. The top and the other side have signs of a circular and oval form, crossed by lines. The sculpture is ascribed to the Dorachos (or Dorasques), but to what purpose the stone was applied no historical account or tradition reveals.[9]
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Southwest face of the pictured stone.]
These inscriptions are irregularly placed and much scattered. They are thought to have been originally nearly an inch deep, but in places are almost effaced by weathering, thus giving a suggestion of great antiquity. I have seen tracings of these figures made recently by Mr. A. L. Pinart which show decided differences in detail, and Mr. McNiel gives still another transcript. I present in Fig. 5 Mr. McNiel’s sketch of the southwest face of the rock, as he has given considerably more detail than any other visitor. Mr. McNiel’s sketches show seventeen figures on the opposite side of the rock. Seemann gives only twelve, while Mr. Pinart’s tracings show upwards of forty upon the same face. These three copies would not be recognized as referring to the same original. That of Mr. Pinart seems to show the most careful study and is probably accurate. Good photographs would be of service in eliminating the inconvenient personal equation always present in the delineation of such subjects. These figures bear little resemblance to those painted upon the vases of this region.