DRESS AND ADORNMENT. 



53 



ornaments — not weapons or instruments. So in Africa, although 

 it is true that the natives make wonderful assegai-blades, we 

 believe that they use both copper and iron far more for leg-bands, 

 arm-rings, and other decorations, than for articles of utility. As 

 due to the ornament-search of man, metal-working possesses a 

 special interest for us, and its beginnings deserve consideration. 

 The first steps are well shown in North America. Here not only 

 the recent tribes but also the builders of the mounds used native 

 copper from Lake Superior. This was not smelted, but was beaten 

 into shape with hammers 

 of stone. Thin sheets were 

 also beaten out between two 

 stones and used for covering 

 wooden forms. Prof. Put- 

 nam has found some very 

 interesting spool-shaped ear 

 ornaments of copper in Ohio 

 mounds. These are not easy 

 to describe, but they are very 

 ingeniously made. They con- 

 sist of two convex-concave 

 disks of beaten copper, from 

 an inch to two inches in di- 

 ameter, held together by a 

 narrow column of rolled 

 copper - sheet. Such have 

 been found in other metals 

 as well as in copper. In one 



altar mound of the Turner group were found two bushels of 

 ornaments of stone, copper, mica, shells, teeth, pearls, etc., nearly 

 all perforated for suspension. Several copper ornaments, viz., 

 bracelets, beads, and ear ornaments, were coated with beaten sil- 

 ver ; one copper pendant was covered with beaten gold ; one ear 

 ornament of copper was covered with meteoric iron, and half 

 of one of these ornaments was composed entirely of this latter 

 metal. 



Just how smelting arose we do not know. It may have been 

 an accidental discovery, but, if so, the accident must have occurred 

 in different places and at different times, as there is good evidence 

 that the art has independently originated at several centers. In 

 western Europe bronze preceded iron. In the heart of Africa it 

 seems as if there had been no bronze age before the iron age. 

 The Africans are often remarkable smiths, producing an excellent 

 quality of iron with a very primitive outfit. The bellows consist 

 of two wooden or pottery bowls with bladder tops, or of leather 

 sacks ; from these run pipes made of wood or of antelope horns ; 



Fig. 10. — Nubian Gikl with Nose Ornament. 



