148 Hopewell Mound Group 



or ornament, by the aborigines of Europe or Asia; either they did not use them, 

 or else the pearls have entirely passed away in the course of twenty or more centuries. 

 We do know, however, that neither pearls nor Unio shells were used by any of the 

 lake-dwellers of Switzerland or the adjacent countries. 



"It is not unlikely that the Indians of the Atlantic coast may have known of 

 pearls from the common clam, as well as from the edible oyster. The former may 

 have often contained pearls weighing from fifty to one hundred grains each, as at 

 that period the mollusks were permitted to attain their full growth, and perhaps 

 were not eaten, except when they were as small as little-neck clams; the larger 

 ones were sought for the purple spot which held the muscle, and was used for wam- 

 pum. We have no record of the finding of pearls in any graves north of Virginia, 

 as the many graves opened in the past century have failed to reveal them, nor has 

 the use of pearls been mentioned by any of the early writers. They may have been 

 worn, but if so, they have passed away, or may have been mistaken for ashes if 

 they had decrepitated. 



"The first English settlers found the Indians of the tidewater region of what 

 now constitutes the Middle States using pearls quite freely and esteeming them 

 among their favorite treasures and ornaments. Captain John Smith, and all the 

 early chroniclers of the Virginia colony, have given many accounts of this aboriginal 

 use of pearls. 



"Pearls of various shapes and sizes were comparatively common, but symmetrical 

 pearls of uniform size were more rare. Strachey writes of having seen 'manie chaynes 

 and braceletts (of pearls) worne by the people, and wee have found plentie of them 

 in the sepulchers of their kings, though discoloured by burning the oysters in the 

 fier, and deformed by grosse boring.' One of Hariot's companions obtained from 

 the Indians about five thousand pearls, from which a sufficient number of good 

 quality and of uniform size were obtained to make a 'fayre chaine, which for their 

 likeness and uniformitie in roundness, orientness and pidenesse of many excellent 

 colours, with equalitie in greatnesse, were verie fayre and rare." 



"Those who have examined the thousands of pearls from Ohio mounds, to be 

 mentioned later, can readily understand these conditions. The pearl beads from 

 the mounds vary in diameter from about an eighth of an inch to nearly an inch, 

 the great majority being small and irregular, although there are many among them 

 of good form and value. It is probable that most of the Virginia pearls were obtained 

 from the fresh-water mussel {Unio); not unlikely from the common marine clam 

 {Venus mercenaria) , or the common oyster {Ostrea virginica). 



"As regards the burial of pearls with the dead and their use in religious rites, 

 curious and quite full accounts are given by Strachey, Smith, Hariot, and Beverley. 2 

 There was a 'temple,' also occupied as a residence by one or more priests, in the 

 territory of every chief. This building was usually some eighteen or twenty feet 

 wide, and varied in length from thirty to one -hundred feet, with an entrance at 

 the eastern end, and the western portion partitioned off with mats to form a sort 

 of sanctuary or 'chancel.' Within this were kept the dried bodies of deceased chiefs, 

 and an image of the god, called, Okee, made in the shape of a man, 'all black, dressed 

 with chaynes of perle.' Full descriptions of these idols and their manufacture are 

 given by Hariot and Beverley, also of the process of preserving the remains of the 

 chiefs. 3 After the body had been disemboweled, the skin was laid back, and the 

 flesh was cut away from the bones. When this operation was completed, the skeleton, 

 held together by its ligaments, was again inclosed in the skin, and stuffed with white 

 sand, or with 'pearle, copper, beads, and such trash sowed in a skynne.' 4 It was 

 then dressed in fine skins and adorned with all sorts of valuables, including strings 

 of pearls and beads. The same kinds of treasures were also deposited in a basket 

 at the feet of the mummy. 



1 Thomas Hariot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of 

 Virginia, p. 11 (Holbein edition). 



2 Willoughby, American Anthropologist, Vol. IX, 1907, pp. 61, 62. 



3 Beverley, History of Virginia (1722), pp. 167, 186. 



4 Strachey, Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannica, p. 89 (Hakluyt Soc, 

 London, 1849). 



