Scotty tied a bucket to the rope and lowered it. Tony put the muddy collection in it and Scotty drew it up.
"Send the rope back for me," Tony called.
The three boys helped to pull him up. He immediately sat down on the ground with the bucket between his legs and started to clean his findings.
"Rick," he requested, "get me the bag of cloths and brushes from my case, please?"
Rick did so. Tony removed most of the mud by wiping it off with his gloves. Then brushes and cloths completed the job. He held up a human jawbone, inlaid with gold. His eyes sparkled. "Typical, except for the gold. The human jawbone is a common Ifugao relic. In fact, they suspend their musical instruments from human jawbones." He put it down carefully and started to work on the next object. It turned out to be a pipe, again typical Ifugao work except for the fact that it was of gold.
Rick examined it. He had seen pipes something like it before, but made of clay. "I thought tobacco was an American product," he observed. "How come these primitive Asiatics had it?"
"Asia used tobacco long before the Indians introduced it to Europeans," Tony replied. "But it's curious that the pipe forms should be so similar. That pipe was made by a process we now use in America for very delicate castings. It is called the 'lost wax' process."
"Funny name," Chahda said, interested.
"Yes, until you know about the process. The Ifugao makes the pipe he wants out of wax, then coats it with clay, leaving a hole in the clay. Then he puts the clay in the fire. The clay hardens, but the wax melts and runs out. The Ifugao, then, has a mold exactly like the pipe he made of wax. He melts the metal he chooses—gold, in this case—and pours it into the clay mold. When the metal cools, he breaks off the mold, and there is his pipe."
"Lost wax," Scotty said. "You're right. It fits."