47 
classed as prehistoric though it is obvious that the people 
of those days were skilful artizans in gold, bronze, and 
iron and must have been contemporaries of historic 
periods in the story of Egypt and Mesopatamia. Ovari 
is the name ofa small fishing village not far distant on 
the adjacent coast and may possibly be the Ophir of 
Solomon and the port whereto the fleets of Tarshish 
sailed to freight home the treasures of India. 
(b) THE Former ExtsTENCE OF BANGLE FacTORIES 
IN THE DECCAN AND IN GUJARAT AND KATHIAWAR. 
I have been unable to obtain any evidence from 
ancient Indian writings of the existence elsewhere than 
in the extreme south of the country of any ancient 
custom of wearing bangles cut from chank shells. 
Probably such references do exist and, if this be so, [| 
trust the present notes may elicit their quotation 
by scholars who are familiar with the ancient Sanscrit 
and Gujarati classics, the most probable sources of 
information. 
Fortunately, in this apparent absence of written 
records, archeology has important evidence to offer, 
and although it is difficult to date the greater portion of 
this testimony with any exactitude, it offers irrefutable 
proof that the industry of chank cutting and the custom 
of wearing chank bangles had once much less restricted 
geographical range than at the present day. The largest 
collection of remains demonstrating this fact is the Foote 
collection of Indian Prehistoric and Protohistoric Anti- 
quities in the Madras Government Museum ; the excava- 
tions made by Mr. A. Rea, Archeologist to the 
Madras Government, have further extended our know- 
ledge of the range of this ancient industry. The former 
valuable series comprises several thousands of paleoli- 
thic and neolithic implements and weapons together 
with multitudinous fragments of pottery and other 
artifacts assigned to the neolithic and succeeding prehis- 
toric periods. For us the main interest centres in the 
numerous fragments of chank bangles and chank_ work- 
shop cuttings and waste represented in the collection. 
Many of these were found associated with undoubted 
neolithic stone implements while others were mingled 
with potsherds of less readily determinable age. The 
