894 



PALAFITTES, OE LACUSTRTAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



state, and might serve for use to-day. All are provided with a groove to receive 

 the end of the pin and prevent pricking. This clasp is different both from that 

 of the Etruscans and that of the Romans, but is perfectly similar to those of 

 Alise. If, as seems probable, it served for the same purpose, we are justified in 

 concluding that those who owned it wore also the toga or mantle. The same 

 clasp, likewise, is found at Tiefenau and at the Wylerfeld, near Berne, accompa- 

 nied, in this last locality, by glass bracelets, which make part of the collection 

 at Berne. Colonel Schwab owns one of these clasps, the studs of which are of 

 bronze. Analogous forms occur also in the tombs. We have seen in the col- 

 lection of M. Troyou small clasps of bronze, very simiUr to those of our figure 

 83 ; the same form is found at Hallstadt. 



RINGS. 



"We possess a great number of these, both plain and ornamented, but the use 

 made of them is yet imperfectly known. Some probably served as buckles or 



Fisrure 6G. 



clasps for the girdle, (Figs. 85 and 86;) 

 others, especially the circular rings, still 

 await interpretation. Most of them are 

 too small to have been intended for brace- 

 lets ; while others again are divided into 

 sections, (Fig. 87,) conveying the idea 

 that they constituted a sort of annular 

 money like the small rings of the age of 

 bronze. From the same locality have 

 been taken nippers of very finished work- 

 manship, in the shape of our tweezers, 

 but longer, and destined, no doubt, for 

 depilatory purposes, for which they might 

 serve even now, (Fig. 88.) To these 

 should be added certain very broad and 

 fiat plates, with a stem neatly fashioned; 

 the purpose of which is unknown, but 



Fiffiire 87. 



which, from their tenuity, we are disposed to regard as razors, (Fig. 89.) M. 



