62 SHELLS WORN AS ORNAMENTS. 



pearl-oyster shells were held by Europeans, imagined that 

 by levying a duty on them she would greatly increase her 

 revenue ; " and accordingly a duty was ordered to be levied, 

 but the mode in which the order was put into execution led 

 to unfortunate results, and the Queen was compelled to 

 forego this plan of enriching her exchequer. * 



Pearls are the toys of civilised nations, while shells them- 

 selves become the pride and ornament of savage tribes ; for 

 it is in poetry only that we find damsels who think them- 

 selves 



" when unadorn'd, 



Adorn'd the most." 



A negro Venus with a large cowry (Cypraea) for an ear- 

 pendant, another for a nose-jewel, and a string of volutes 

 for a necklace, may, in the opinion of your fair lady, have a 

 very ridiculous and childish taste, but, in reality, the one 

 values her pretty shells as highly as the other doth her pearls. 

 And this is no idle supposition : for I remember that Sir J. 

 Banks could not, by any present, induce an Otaheitan girl 

 to part with her native ornaments ; and some tribes so curi- 

 ously and neatly form their shells into festoons and bracelets, 

 and wear them so gracefully, that even European travellers 

 have expressed admiration of them, f Some years ago I 

 saw, in the museum of Mr. Bullock, a very magnificent piece 

 of dress of this kind. It was the chief mourner's dress of 

 ceremony at the funerals of Otaheite. The part worn over 

 the face was made of large plates of mother-of-pearl shell 

 fastened together with fibres of the cocoa-nut ; and the 



* Voyage, i. 246, 281. The manufacture of artificial pearls is now a 

 considerable branch of trade. Shaw says that the eyes of the cuttle-fish are 

 strung, as pearls for necklaces, on the shores of Sicily and Naples. Dun- 

 cans Anal, of Organ. Beings, 59. They appear to have been used as orna- 

 ments by the Peruvians also ; and the natives of the Sandwich Islands have 

 imposed them on the Russians as pearls. Gray, Spic. Zool. 3. De Mont- 

 fort says he has seen a necklace formed out of the nacred part of the Turbo 

 smaragdus much more brilliant and beautiful than any of the finest orient 

 pearls. Conch. Syst. ii. 252. Of the Turbines, Chenu tells us, "Les 

 grandes especes fournissent une fort belle nacre, employee pour les 

 ouvrages de marqueterie. Quelques especes ont reu des noms sous 

 lesquels les marchands les distinguent : il y a le Burgau ou Nacre ; la 

 Veuve perlee, dont les tubercles extrieurs uses ressemblent a des perles ; 

 la Bouche-d'Or, dont la nacre est d'un beau jaune dore* ; la Bouche-d'Ar- 

 gent, le Perroquet ou Turbo imperial, &c ,&c." Xep. Element. 188. 



f " The Fuegian necklaces shew some ingenuity in those who make them, 

 being composed of small shells, perforated very neatly, and fastened together 

 on strings of sinews or gut, so finely divided and platted, that one is, at first, 

 inclined to doubt their being the manufacture of such uncouth savages." 

 Voy. of Adventure and Beagle, ii, 201. 



