brought to such perfection as in Pascuaro. It was made with the most beautiful and delicate feathers, chiefly of the picaflores, the humming birds, which they called huitzitzilin. But we are told that it is now upwards of twenty years since the last artist in this branch lived in Pascuaro, and though it is imitated by the nuns, the art is no longer in the state of perfection to which it was brought in the days of Cortes. We are told that several persons were employed in each painting, and that it was a work requiring extraordinary patience and nicety, in the blending of the colors, and in the arrangement of the feathers. The sketch of the figure was first made, and the proportions being measured, each artist took charge of one particular part of the figure or of the drapery. When each had finished his share, all the different parts were re-united, to form the picture. The feathers were first taken up with some soft substance with the utmost care, and fastened with a glutinous matter upon a piece of stuff—then, the different parts being re-united, were placed on a plate of copper, and gently polished, till the surface became quite equal, when they appeared like the most beautiful paintings; or, according to these writers, more beautiful from the splendor and liveliness of the colors, the bright golden, and blue, and crimson tints, than the paintings which they imitated. Many were sent to Spain, and to different museums both in Europe and Mexico; but the art is now nearly lost; nor does it belong to the present utilitarian age. Our forefathers had more leisure than we, and probably we have more than our descendants
