686 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



The shell gorgets appear to furnish, by their jieouliar form aud orna- 

 mentation, a very evident connecting link between the two peoples. 

 The various forms taken from the mounds will be found figured in Mi". 

 Holmes's paper in the second report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 

 Some of these are also giveu in our figures in the previous part of this 

 volume. Beverly,' speaking of shell ornaments made by the Indians, 

 remarks: "Of this shell [which he calls the cunk shell] they also 

 make round tablets of about 4 inches diameter, which they polish as 

 smooth as the (ither, and sometimes they etch or (jrnve thereon circles, 

 stars, a half moon, or any other figure suitable to their fancy. These 

 they wear instead of medals before or behind their neck." 



Lawson's' testimony corresponds with this: " They oftentimes make 

 of this shell a sort of gorge, which they wear about their neck in a 

 string, so it hangs on their collar, whereon sometimes is grav^en a 

 cross or some odd sort of figure which comes next in their fancy." 



We have only to examine Fig. 3, PI. lii, 2d Aim. Eep. Bur. Ethn., 

 and our Fig. Iil3 to find Beverly's circles and half moon, although 

 the chief engraved figure is intended to represent a serpent. On the 

 shell represented in the former of these figures we see Lawson's cross. 

 Moreover, we see in all the two holes through which to pass the 

 string for suspending them. As some of the shells have been found in 

 typical mounds, and with the original and lowest burials, and also in 

 stone graves, they form a connecting link between the true mound- 

 builders and historic Indians which seems to identify the two as one 

 people, at least in the region where these relics are found. Further 

 reference will hereafter be made to them for the purpose of identifying 

 certain tribes as mound-builders. 



Dumont remarks that — 



There are still to be seen ou the seasliore beautiful shells made by suails (or 

 limaton), which are called burgaux; they are very useful for makiug handsome 

 tobacco boxes, for they bear their mother-of-pearl with them. It is of these 

 burgaux that the native women make their ear rings. For this purpose they take 

 the end of it which they rub a long time on liard stones, and thus give it the 

 form of a nail furnished with a head, in order that when they place them in their 

 ears they will be held by this kind of pi\ot. For these savages have much larger 

 holes in their ears than our Frenchmen ; the thumb could be passed through them, 

 however large it might be. The savages also wear around tlie neck plates made of 

 pieces of these shells, wliiih are shaped in the same manner ou stones, aud which 

 they form into round or oval pieces of about 3 (»■ 4 inches in diameter. They are 

 then ])ierced near the edge by means of tire aud used :is ornaments. - 



The nail-shaped pieces and circular ornaments alluded to are very 

 common in mounds. Examples of these tyijes are shown by Mr. Holmes 

 in his article entitled "Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans," Second 

 Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, and in our figures 283 and 



284.-'' 



' Lawsou, Hist, of Carolina, p. 315, Raleigli » Mem. Hist. La. (Paris, 1753), vol. 1, p. 94. 



reprint. (1800.) 3 pjg, xxx ami XLVI. 



