DRESS AND ADORNMENT. 



heads are the very curious skull-masks from certain South Sea 

 Islands. These are built up from parts of human skulls, pieced 

 out with wood, cements, hair, and ornaments into horrid repre- 

 sentations of faces. These are worn in dances and hence are true 

 objects of dress. 



The subject of amulets and charms would, of itself, furnish 

 more material than could be used in our whole course of lectures. 

 Scarcely any trinket or odd 

 object exists that may not be 

 worn upon the person "for 

 luck," or to ward off danger 

 or harm. All jjeoples use 

 them. Savage, barbarian, 

 and civilized man are alike 

 here. Nubians are inveterate 

 wearers of charms. Theirs 

 usually consist of something 

 done up in a red leathern 

 case ; the contents must not 

 be known. For what will 

 charms not be worn ? I know 

 American mothers who buy 

 seeds — " Job's tears " — at 

 drug- stores, to string them 

 into a necklace to hang about 

 the baby's neck to ward off 

 eye troubles. The Bechuana 

 mother strings beetles of a 

 certain species and hangs them about the neck of her baby to lielp 

 it in teething. Prof. Putnam found metacarpal bones of birds 

 buried with babies in the little graves which he discovered under 

 the hard clay floor of old house circles in Arkansas and Missouri. 

 From analogy with modern Indian customs, he believes these were 

 charms to help the child in cutting its teeth. We can not find that 

 asafoetida is a specific for or a preventive of diphtheria, but we 

 did find a small Afro- American who wore a little bag of it about 

 his neck as a charm against the disease. Hundreds of Roman 

 Catholic boys do not take off the medals they wear about their 

 necks when they go in swimming, as these are a sure preventive 

 against drowning. One of the most precious and beautiful amulets 

 of history is that of which Moncure D. Conway tells us. It was 

 a treasure from the past, owned by the Emperor Louis Napoleon 

 III. It was set with a blaze of precious stones, the gifts of many 

 princes. It descended to the Prince Imperial, who wore it as a watch- 

 charm. He wore it when he was killed among the Zulus, and it 

 is gone, no one knows where. Ah ! if he had but known the rules 



Fig. 8. — Dance -mask. South Seas. 



