114 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
Creek valley of Ohio, this same authority refers to other 
occurrences of pearls including a beautiful string of these 
gems in a good state of preservation from one burial ; 
also to the discovery of bears’ teeth set with pearls in 
what appeared to be sacred shrines for the dead. 
In addition to the archzxologists cited above, other 
noted authorities, including W. K. Moorehead, have 
examined the mounds of the Ohio region, and have met 
with abundant evidence, both in the burial and in the 
altar mounds, of the ancient appreciation of pearls.’ 
When found in burial mounds with skeletons, the 
pearls are usually at the wrists or ankles, or about the 
neck, or in the mouth, the latter recalling forcibly the 
Hindu and Chinese custom of placing pearls in the mouth 
of the dead (supra pp. 89 and 100). 
In the case of the altar mounds, there is evidence of 
a different procedure. Instead of a burial, there was a 
great funeral sacrifice in honour of some distinguished 
person, in which numerous treasures, including quantities 
of pearls, were consumed, or meant to be. 
It would seem that though the number of pearls 
encountered in the mounds of the Ohio region is very 
great, the graves which contain them are relatively very 
few. They seem to have been buried only with persons 
of special distinction, probably either chiefs or eminent 
medicine men: this preferential use of pearls, it may be 
observed, was also found in Asiatic countries, 
In the mounds of Illinois pearls have also been met 
with associated with skeletons of Indians. Dr. J. F. 
Snyder records the discovery of large canine teeth of the 
bear, set with pearls, at the base of a large mound which 
he opened in 1895, in Brown County, on the west side 
13° An excellent summary of the work of these authorities is given by 
Kunz and Stevenson (of. ¢//., especially in Chap. xvii.) 
