PEARLS AND IMITATION PEARLS 109 



holes, and yet finishes from thirty to seventy buttons 

 a minute. The finished buttons are cleaned again 

 with water and pumice and are then polished by 

 treatment with dilute mineral acid in a churn. 



Handles for knives and other ornamental im- 

 plements are cut and polished in much the same way. 

 Often the better parts of the large shells are cut 

 into handles, and the inferior and thinner parts 

 of the same shells are made into buttons. In this 

 way the maximum value is obtained from each shell. 



Musical instruments, umbrella handles, picture 

 frames, and many other useful and ornamental 

 objects are often inlaid with mother-o^f -pearl. 

 Jewelers use it for the manufacture of bar pins, 

 combs, shoe buckles, belt buckles, fountain pens, 

 beads, studs, cuff-links, hat-pins, and the like. 



The Italians carve beautiful cameos from pearl 

 shells. The French use mother-of-pearl to make a 

 coarse variety of mosaic called nacre cJiinois. The 

 Japanese make similar ornamental work on lacquer, 

 forming designs of flowers, fruit, and other figures 

 by lining the interior surface with layers of pearl. 



The sacred chank shell of the Hindus is utilized 

 in a number of curious ways. Every married Hindu 

 woman of Bengal wears a pair of chank bracelets 

 lacquered in vermilion as a token of her state of 

 matrimony. The custom seems curious to Americans, 

 but perhaps our American wedding rings seem just 

 as strange to the Hindus. In other parts of India 

 the kind of chank bangle worn indicates the caste 

 of the wearer. The shells are supposed to have mirac- 

 ulous medicinal powers and are used for the treat- 



