446 On the Aggry Beads of Africa. 
aigris is a stone of a greenish blue colour supposed to be a spe- 
cies of jasper, small perforated pieces of which, valued at their 
weight in gold, are used for money,” (which I never heard of,) 
rather describes the pope bead ; though that is semi-tvansparent 
(of a bright blue) resembling carnelian (which is frequently found 
in these countries), and said to be obtained in the same manner 
as the agety bead. Issert * writes, ‘‘ they are a sort of coral 
with inlaid work : the art of making beads is entirely lost, or was 
never known in these parts : it is not improbable that in the golden 
age of Egypt she had communication with the Gold Coast ; indeed, 
it has been thought, and perhaps not without some reason, that 
the Gold Coast is the Ophir of Solomon.” 
The variegated strata of the aggry beads are so firmly united, 
and so imperceptibly blended, that the perfection seems superior 
to art: some resemble mosaic work; the surfaces of others are 
covered with flowers and regular patterns, so very minute, and 
the shades so delicately softened’ one into the other and into the 
ground of the lead, that nothing but the finest touch of the pen- 
cil could equal them. The agatized parts disclose flowers and 
patterns deep in the body of the bead, and thin shafts of opaque 
colours running from the centre to the surface. The natives 
pretend that imitations are made in the country, which they call 
boiled beads, alleging that they are broken aggry beads ground 
into powder and boiled together, and that they know them be- 
cause they are heavier; but this I find to be mere conjecture 
among themselves, unsupported by any thing like observation or - 
discovery. The natives believe that by burying the aggry beads in 
sand they not only grow but breed. 
The colouring matter of the blue beads has been proved by ex- 
periment to be iron; that of the yellow without doubt is lead 
and antimony with a trifling quantity of copper, though not es- 
sential to the production of the colour. The generality of these 
beads appear to be produced from clays coloured in thin layers, 
afterwards twisted together into a spiral form, and then cut 
across; also from different coloured clays raked together without 
blending. How the flowers and delicate patterns in the body and 
on the surface of the rarer beads have been produced, cannot be 
* Dr. Issert, a Danish gentleman, who had the good fortune to cure the 
former king of Ashantee’s sister of a lingering disorder, after she had ex- 
hausted all the skill of the fetish woman, “and came to Christianbur ¢-castle 
in despair. He afterwards expressed his wish to visit the Ashantee kingdom; 
and being encouraged, he set out in June 1786; and staying some days in 
Aguassim, was just about to enter Akim when he was recalled by the go- 
vernor. A dangerous illness, heightened by his disappointment, soon af- 
terwards disgusted him with the country, and he left it for the West Indies. 
His letters descriptive of his tour, so far as it extended, have been hitherto 
only known in the German and Dutch languages. 
so 
