PEARLS AND PEARL SHELLS. 445 



several instances engraved with a human eye, the outlines being filled in with a red 

 mineral color. Abalone or Haliotis shell is also skillfully used in the decoration of 

 their horn spoons, the handles, quaintly carved, being inlaid with abalone and Unio 



shell. 



In the Emmons and Terry collections in the anthropological gallery of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, at New York, are some remarkable specimens of peari 

 work from the aboriginal tribes of Northwest America. Among these may be noted 

 some of the grotesque masks of the shamans, or medicine men, of the tribes of British 

 Columbia, in which the face is surrounded with large inlaid pieces of Haliotis (abalone) 

 shell. Another exhibit shows the whole process of making pearl fishhooks, among 

 some of the Pacific coast Indians. Pearly shells are cat into rude disks of about 2 

 inches diameter; these are then perforated and the perforation gradually enlarged 

 until the disk is reduced to a flattish oval ring; this ring is then cut through on one 

 side, and worked into the shape of a letter C, and the completed hook is soon attained. 

 Another consists of several hundred ring-shaped and discoid pieces of pearl, aver- 

 aging from 1 to 2 inches across, which were found together in a grave in California. 

 These are further drilled with small holes on opposite edges, evidently for sewing them 

 to a garment, doubtless a splendid pearl-covered mantle worn by some distinguished 

 person and buried with his remains. 



The South American exhibits presented many interesting uses of pearly shells, 

 both for inlaying and in various forms of personal adornment. Both these modes of 

 application seem to have been carried very far among some of the native tribes of this 

 continent, as indicated by the articles here described, nearly all of which are now in 

 the Field Columbian Museum. 



In the Amazon basin the Unio family is well developed, but is largely represented 

 by two genera not found elsewhere, Castalia and Hyria. These are characteristic 

 South American types, and while differing from the Unios and Anodons of North 

 America and the Old World, are equally suitable for ornamental uses, from their pearly 

 character. Probably many of the objects here described were made from these shells. 



In the Paraguay collection were a number of necklaces made of oblong squares 

 of Unio shell, connected by means of a fiber drawn through two drilled holes at the 

 upper end, while the lower ends are decorated with three small circular drillings 

 which do not entirely perforate the shell. Another necklace consisted of small joints 

 of hollow reed or bamboo, about an inch in length, between which were blue-glass 

 beads, and pendent from each of these a small brilliant Unio shell, pare white, with a 

 slight iridescence, and remarkably beautiful. Still another necklace was made entirely 

 of Unio shells, not very iridescent, with the dark-brown epidermis remaining on the 

 exterior. Internally the drilling was either near one of the ends or toward the center 

 of the shell. These were strung by a thin vegetable fiber so as to hang pendent about 

 3 inches from the fiber necklace, and were evidently intended to serve for a rattle or 

 noise-producing ornament. In the same exhibit were a large number of pendants, 

 consisting of small pieces or large sections of Unio shells, beautifully iridescent, vary- 

 ing in form from oval to disk-shaped, and in length from 1 to 4 inches. In another 

 necklace Unios were strung indiscriminately with hoofs of some small animal. 



The use of shells as ornaments is very pronounced among these people. In 

 addition to those mentioned, Bullas and land shells were strung in a similar 

 manner. These were white, gray, yellow, frequently with piuk-tinted tips. An 



