218 ART IN SHELL, OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



Such a very concise descriptioa of these objects is given by Prof. F. 

 W. Putnam in a recent paper that I beg leave to quote it here, omit- 

 ting his references to figures : "A columella was ground down to the 

 required size and shape, and made into a pendant by boring a hole 

 through the larger end. In order to make this pendant still more at- 

 tractive, the spiral groove is filled with asphaltum, or a mixture of that 

 material and a red pigment. Sometimes the spiral groove was so nearly, 

 or even wholly, obliterated in the process of grinding the columella into 

 shape as to make it necessary to enlarge or even recut the groove in 

 order to make a place for the much-loved asphaltum." Another form, 

 made from another shell, is described, the whorls of which are "loose 

 and open, so that a natural tube exists throughout the length of the 

 spire; at the same time the spiral groove in the central portion is very 

 narrow; consequently it has to be artificially enlarged for the insertion 

 of the asphaltum, which thus winds spirally about the shell. As the 

 natural orifice at the large end of the shell seems to have been too 

 large for properly adjusting and confining the ornament as desired, 

 this difQculty was overcome by inserting a small shell of Denfalium, or 

 by making a little plug of shell, which is carefully fitted and bored." ' 



The national collection contains upward of fifty of these pins, which 

 come from ancient graves at Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos, Cal., 

 and from the islands of Santa Cruz and San Miguel. These vary in 

 length from one to five inches, the well-finished specimens seldom reach- 

 ing one half an inch in diameter. At the upper end they lound off some- 

 what abruptly to an obtuse point, but taper to a sharp point at the lower 

 end, something like a cigar. Two fine examples are shown in Figs. 1 

 and 2, Plate XXXI. All show the spiral groove, and nearly all have 

 portions of the asphaltum remaining. The columellae from which they 

 are made may be to some extent uaturally perforated, but are certainly 

 not sufficiently so to permit the ready passage of a cord. The points 

 are seldom sharj), and are often broken off. A bit of Dentalium inserted 

 into the perforation and set with asphaltum helps to enforce the point and 

 to guard against further breakage. The larger specimens are seldom 

 perforated transversely at either end, while the smaller ones are almost 

 always perforated at the larger end, which is slightly flattened. A good 

 example is shown in Fig. 5, Plate XXXI. 



A peculiar bulb-pointed specimen is illustrated in Fig. 6, Plate 

 XXXI. The bulb is made from the upper end of the columella. There 

 are six of these pins in the collection. 



The consideration of these pins leads naturally to the presentation 

 of other classes of objects manufactured from the coUumellie of marine 

 univalves among which beads are the most numerous and important. 



'Putnam, in Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, VoL VII, p. 259. 



