ORNAMENTS OF STONE, ETC. 



239 



The specimen dug up within the Hmits of ChilHcothe, is said to have been found 

 resting upon the breast of the skeleton with which it was deposited. The recol- 

 lection of different individuals varies upon that point; hence no conclusion can be 

 founded upon the position in which the relic was discovered. Those taken from 

 the sepulchral mounds have uniformly been found by the side of the skeleton, 

 near the bones of the hand. 



Whatever their purposes, whether worn as ornaments or badges of authority 

 and distinction, or designed as implements, it is certain they were in very general 

 use. Not far from one hundred have been examined, which were procured from 

 localities extending over the States of Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Illinois, and Indiana.* 



Fig. 138 (half size) also presents examples of a large class of remains probably of 

 kindred character with those last described, and, like them, always composed of 

 an ornamental kind of stone. The engravings will best illustrate their form, 

 which, in almost every specimen, is slightly varied. They have holes perforated 

 diagonally, at their lower corners, in which marks of wear from suspension or use 

 are distinctly visible. The field of their occurrence is equally extensive with that 

 of the relics last described. 



It may reasonably be concluded from the uniform shape of these articles, and 

 from their apparent unfitness as implements, as also from the wide rano-e of their 

 occurrence, that they were invested with a conventional significance as insio-nia or 

 badges of distinction or as amulets. We know that the custom of Avearinw certain 

 stones as preventives of disease, or as safeguards against accidents or the malice 

 of evil spirits, has not been confined to one continent or a single age. It is not 

 entirely obliterated among certain classes of our own people. Regal authority is 

 still indicated by rich baubles of gold and gems. It matters little whether the 



* Adair mentions ornaments worn by the " high priests " of tlie Southern tribes of Indians, which mav 

 have been identical with those here described. He says : " Tlie American archi-magus wears a breast- 

 plate, made of a white conch shell, with two holes bored in the middle of it, through which he puts the ends 

 of an otter-skin strap, and fastens a buck-horn button to the outside of each." (Adair's Aiuerican ludinns 

 p. 84.) Our author does not fail to identify this badge with ihe sacred urini and thummini of the Jewish 

 high priest, and draws a notable argument tlierefrom in support of his hypothesis of the Jewish ori<'in of 

 the American Indians. A similar ornament is mentioned by Beverly, as one of the principal decorations 

 of the Indians of Virginia. He describes it as " a tablet of fine shell, smooth as polished marble." 

 (Hislnni (if \'iifjinin. p. 141 ) 



