256 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



they adorned their clothes, they wore pendants to the ears, nose, and 

 lips, as well as necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. The ear ornaments 

 of the poor were shells, pieces of crystal, amber, and other brilliant 

 stones, but the rich wore pearls, emeralds, amethysts, or other gems, set 

 in gold.' The priestly personages so graphically delineated in the an- 

 cient Aztec manuscripts are as a rule loaded down with pendant orna- 

 ments. In traveling north along the west coast of Mexico the Friar 

 Niza encountered Indians who wore many large shells of mother of 

 pearl about their necks, and farther up toward Cibola the inhabitants 

 wore pearl shells upon their foi'eheads;'' and Cabefa de Vaca when among 

 the i>ueblos of New Mexico noticed beads and corals that came from the 

 "South Sea." Ornaments made from marine shells are found in many 

 of the ancient ruin 5 to-day. They are also highly valued by the modern 

 Indians of this region. 



In theearliest accounts of the Indians of the Atlantic coast we find 

 frequent mention of the use of pendants and gorgets, and the manner 

 of wearing them as .ornaments. Beverly, after having described 

 beads made of a shell resembling the English buglas, says that they 

 also make "runtees" of the same shell, and grind them as smooth as 

 peak. "These are either large like an oval Bead, diill'd the length of 

 the Oval, or else they are circular and flat, almost an Inch over, and 

 one Third of an Inch thick, and drill'd edgeways. Of this Shell they 

 also make round Tablets of about four Inches Diameter, which they 

 polish as smooth as the other, and sometimes they etch or grave there- 

 on Circles, Stars, a half Moon, or any other Figure suitable to their 

 Fancy. These they wear instead of Medals before or behind their Neck, 

 and use the Peafc, Runtees, and Pipes for Coronets, Bracelets, Belts, or 

 long Strings hanging down before the Breast, or else they lace their 

 Garments with them, and adorn their Tomahaicks, and every other thing 

 that they value."' The "Pijies" here spoken of were probably long, 

 heavy cylindrical beads. 



In referring to this class of ornaments, Lafitau says : " The collars 

 which the savages sometimes wear around the neck are about a foot in 

 diameter, and are not different from those which one now sees on some 

 antiques, on the necks of statues of barbarians. The northern savages 

 wear on the breast a plate of hollow shell, as long as the hand, which 

 has the same effect as that which was called Bulla among the Romans."* 



Wood, speaking of the Indians of Northern New England, in 1034, 

 says: "Although they be thus poore, yet is there in them the sparkes 

 of naturall pride, which appeares in their longing desire after many 

 kinds of ornaments, wearing pendants in their eares, as formes of birds, 

 beasts, and fishes carved out of bone, shels, and stone, with long brace- 



'Clavigero: History of Mexico, Trans, by Cullen, vol. I, p. 437. 

 •Davis: Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, p. 121. 

 Beverly : History of Virginia, p. 195. 

 *Lafitau: Moeura des Sauvages Ameriquains, ji. 61. 



