138 



BEADWOEK 



[B. A. E. 



seeds and, especially along the southern 

 tier of states from Florida to California, 

 nuts were widely used for beads, and here 

 and there stems and roots of pretty or 

 scented plants were cut into sections for 

 the same purpose. But far the largest 

 share of beads were made from animal 

 materials — shell, bone, horn, teeth, claws, 

 and ivory. Beads of marine or fresh- 

 water shells were made by grinding off the 

 apex, as in the case of dentalium, or the 

 unchanged shells of bivalves were merely 

 perforated near the hinge. Pearls were 

 bored through the middle, and shells 

 were cut into disks, cylinders, spheres, 

 spindles, etc. In places the colnmellpe of 

 large conchs were removed and pierced 

 through the long diameter for stringing. 

 Bone beads were usually cylinders pro- 

 duced by cutting sections of various 

 lengths from the thigh or other parts of 



ENOMINEE BEADWORK. (hOFFMAn) 



vertebrate skeletons. When the wall of 

 the bone was thick the ends were ground 

 to give a spherical form. The milk teeth 

 of the elk, the canine teeth of the bear, 

 and the incisors of rodents were highly 

 valued, and in later times the incisors of 

 the horse were worn. The beaks of the 

 putRn, the talons of rapacious birds, and 

 bears' claws were wrought into ceremonial 

 dress and paraphernalia. A great deal of 

 taste and manual skill were developed in 

 selecting the materials, and in cutting, 

 grinding, and rolling them into shape and 

 uniform size, as well as in polishing and 

 perforating substances, some of them very 

 hard, as jasper. Manyof the cylinders are 

 several inches long. The tribes of n. w. 

 California wrap dt'ntalia with snake skin 

 glued on in strii)s, while the Pomo and 

 their neightjor.s make large cylinders of a 

 baked mineral (Kroeber). 



The general uses to which beads were 

 put are legion. They were tied in the 

 hair, worn singly or in strings from the 

 ears, on the neck, arms, wrist, waist, and 

 lower limbs, or were attached to bark and 

 wooden vessels, matting, basketry, and 

 other textiles. They were woven into 

 fabrics or wrought into network, their 

 varied and bright colors not only enhanc- 

 ing beauty but lending themselves to her- 

 aldry. Glass beads thus woven produce 

 effects likethoseof cathedral glass. Again, 

 they were embroidered on every part of 

 ceremonial costume, sometimes entirely 

 covering headdress, coat, regalia, leggings, 

 or moccasins, and on all sorts of recep- 

 tacles. The old-time technic and de- 

 signs of quillwork are closely imitated. 

 They were largely employed as gifts and 

 as money, also as tokens and in records 

 of hunts or of important events, such as 

 treaties. They were conspicuous acces- 

 sories in the councils of war and peace, in 

 the conventional expression of tribal 

 symbolism, and in traditional story-tell- 

 ing, and were offered in worship. They 

 were regarded as insignia of functions, 

 and were buried, often in vast quantities, 

 with the dead. 



In each of the ethnic areas of North 

 America nature provided tractable and 

 attractive material to the bead-maker. 

 In the Arctic region it was walrus ivory 

 and the glossy teeth of mammals. They 

 served not only for personal adornment, 

 but were hung to all sorts of skin recep- 

 tacles and inlaid upon the surfaces of 

 those made of wood and soft stone. The 

 Danes brought glass to the eastern Eski- 

 mo, the whalers to the central, and the 

 Russians to the western tribes. In the St 

 Lawrence- Atlantic area whole shells were 

 strung, and cylinders, disks, and spindles 

 were cut from the valves of the clam ( Ve- 

 nus mercenaria). In Virginia a cheap kind, 

 called roanoke, were made from oyster 

 shells. In the N. small white and pur- 

 ple cylinders, called wampum, served for 

 ornament and were used in elaborate 

 treaty belts and as a money standard, also 

 flat disks an inch or more in width being 

 bored through their long diameters. The 

 Cherokee name for beads and money is 

 the same. Subsequently imitated by the 

 colonists, these beads received a fixed 

 value. The mound-builders and other 

 trilies of the Mississippi valley and the 

 Gulf states used pearls and beads of shell, 

 seeds, and rolled copper. Canine teeth 

 of the elk were most highly esteemed, 

 recently being worth 50 cents to $1 each. 

 They were carefully saved, and a garment 

 covered with them was vakied at as much 

 as $600 or $800. The modern tribes also 

 used the teeth of rodents, the claws of bears 

 and carnivores, and the dewclaws of rumi- 

 nants. Nuts and berries were univer- 



