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utilize these discs. In many cases they are employed 
as ornaments to decorate headdresses, and in some cases 
(Thibet) they are even attached or hung from the hair 
reminding one of the custom of the wandering Lambadi 
(Brinjari) women who sometimes hang ornaments from 
locks of hair in front of the ears. 
The Nagas of Assam, lately brought to prominent 
notice through the good work they did as carriers during 
the Abor punitive expedition (1912), employ these discs 
both to form necklaces and to decorate the handsome 
plaited cane helmets worn by the men. ‘These latter are 
conical in shape, about a foot high, and covered with a 
tayer of fur and hair, black or red in colour. When 
decorated with chank-shell discs, these are arranged as 
coronals, adding most effectively to the general design 
(We Crooke,- “Natives of Northern” India,’ p. 47, 
London, 1907). As the Nagas are known to have set 
much greater store by the ‘chank in former times, say 
prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, it is 
probable that then the use of chank discs as items 
of ornament was much more general among this race than 
itis now. Still the custom is quite common, for Mr. 
Stanley Kemp, who accompanied the Abor expedition as 
naturalist, informs methat the Naga coolies employed as 
carriers frequently wore necklaces formed of square 
concave portions of chank-shell with a-large cornelian 
set e2 cabochon in the centre. Sometimes long cylin- 
drical beads made from chank shell, tapered slig chtly at 
either end, were used instead and cornelian beads were 
often seen in conjunction. 
In the middle of last century Major John Butler 
mentions (‘Travels and Adventures in the Province ot 
Assam,” p. 148, London, 1855) that at sixteen years of age 
a Naga youth “ puts on ivory armlets or else wooden or 
red-coloured cane ones round his neck. He suspends 
conch shells witha black thread ” (round his neck) “ puts 
brass ornaments into his ears and wears the black kilt ; 
and ifa man has killed another in war he wears three or 
four rows of cowries round the kilt.” From a specimen of 
chank-shell necklace from the Naga hills contained in the 
ethnological collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 
it appears that the shells before being used were bisected 
longitudinally, each half being hung as a pendant by one 
It 
