228 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



BCNTEES. . 



In Plate XXXVI I present a number of illustrations of a class of 

 relics which have occasionally been mentioned in literature, and which 

 are represented to some extent in our collections. As these objects re- 

 semble beads rather more closely than pendants, I shall refer to them 

 in this place, although Mr. Schoolcraft considers them badges of honor 

 or rank, and treats them as gorgets. He describes them as consisting 

 of a "circular piece of flat shell, from one and a half to two inches in 

 diameter, quartered with double lines, having the devices of dots be- 

 tween them. This kind was doubly perforated in the plane of the 

 circle." ' 



In " Notes on the Iroquois," by the same author, we have a much fuller 

 description. He says that "this article is generally found in the form 

 of an exact circle, rarely a little ovate. It has been ground down and 

 repolished, apparently, from the conch. Its diameter varies from three- 

 fourths of an inch to two inches; thickness, two-tenths in the center, 

 thinning out a little towards the edges. It is doubly perforated. It is 

 figured on the face and its reverse, with two parallel latitudinal and two 

 longitudinal lines crossing in its center, and dividing the area into four 

 equal parts. Its circumference is marked with an inner circle, corre- 

 sponding in width to the cardinal parallels. Each division of the circle 

 thus quartered has five circles, with a central dot. The latitudinal and 

 longitudinal bands or fillets have each four similar circles and dots, and 

 one in its center, making thirty-seven. The number of these circles 

 varies, however, on various specimens. In the one figured there are 

 fifty-two."* 



Figs. 1 and 2 are copied from Plate 25 of Schoolcraft. The smaller 

 was obtained from an ancient grave at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and the 

 larger from an Indian cemetery at Onondaga, N. Y. Others have been 

 found at J amesville, Lafayette, and Manlius, in the latter State. The 

 Indians, according to Mr. Schoolcraft, have no traditions respecting 

 this class of objects, and we are quite in the dark as to their significance 

 or the manner in which they were used. 



Mr. W. M. Beauchamp, of Baldwinsville, N, Y,, has very kindly sent 

 me sketches of two of these objects. The originals were obtained from 

 an ancient village site at Pom^jey, N. Y, One is almost a duplicate of 

 the smaller siiecimen copied from Schoolcraft, but the other, which is 

 illustrated in Fig. 4, Plate XXXVI, presents some novel features. The 

 central portion of the face is occupied by a rosette-like design, which 

 consists of six sharply oval figures that radiate from the center like the 

 epokes of a wheel. These rays are ornamented with a series of oblique 

 lines, arranged in couplets. The margin is encircled by a narrow band, 

 similarly figured, Mr, Beauchamp expresses the opinion that these 

 Bpecimeus are of European origin. 



The specimen shown in Fig. 3 belongs to a necklace now in the 



" 'Schoolcraft: History of the Indian Tribes, Vol. Ill, p. 79, Plate 25. 



'Schoolcraft: Notes on the Iroquois, p. 233. 



