ORNAMENTS OF STONE, ETC. 



235 



and "brought from llic. potteries and glass-liouses of Europe various substitutes 

 for the native vvampuiii, in the shape of white, opaque, transparent, blue, black, and 

 other variously colored heads, and of as many various forms as the genius of geometry 

 could well devise. They also brought over a species of paste-mosaic, or curious 

 oval or elongated beads of a kind of enamel or paste, skilfully arranged in layers 

 of various colors, which, viewed at their poles, presented stars, radii, or other 

 figures."* 



Fia 132. 



Pendants. — These ornaments are of frequent occurrence in the vicinity of the 

 ancient works, though seldom found, if indeed found at all, in the ancient mounds 

 themselves. They for the most part resemble the plumbs of the architect, and 

 are usually made of rare and beautiful materials. No. 1 may be taken as the 

 predominant form. It is symmetrically worked from a variety of greenstone, 

 interspersed with large crystals of mica. It is drawn of half the dimensions of the 

 original, which measures three and a half inches in length by one and a fourth in 

 its greatest diameter, and weighs not far from four ounces. No. 2, also of half 

 size, is well worked from a dark brown hematite, and is highly polished. No. 

 3 is also of hematite. It differs from the others in its shape, which is double 

 conoid, and has the groove around the middle. Hematite seems to have been a 

 favorite material for these ornaments. No. 5 is of quartz, and is much the 

 rudest which has fallen under notice. These articles were all evidently designed 

 for suspension. It has been suggested that they were used as ear ornaments ; their 

 weight, however, seems too considerable for such a purpose. To this day some 

 of the savage tribes have the lobes of their ears greatly distended, in the language 

 of the early writers, " like hoops," and the disfiguration is deemed a great improve- 

 ment upon nature. " Some of the Indians," says Lawson, " wear great bobs in their 

 ears, and sometimes in the holes thereof they put eagle's feathers, for a trophy."t 



* Schoolcraft, " Notes on the Iroquois," p. '2.21. It is undoubted that some of the Indian ti'ibes to the 

 west of the Mississippi have the art, it is not presumed to say how or where acquired, of making a sort of 

 enamelled beads, which they contrive to color of various shades. Some of these, of tolerable workmanship, 

 are in the cabinet of the authors. They were obtained from the celebrated Fond de Been/, into which 

 they were thrown under some superstitious impulse. Lewis and Clarke give an account of the manu- 

 facture of these ornaments, which is fully sustained by the peculiarities of the beads here mentioned. 



f Lawson's Carolina, p. 193. We have discovered none of these ornaments in the mounds, and it is 

 difficult to say whether or not they are genuine relics of the mound-builders. It is possible they were 



