258 ART IN SHELL OP THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



in the same manuscript. Of even greater interest are the beautiful 

 necklaces, with their pendants, found in the sculptures of Mexico aud 

 Yucatan. " Three of these are shown in Figs. 6, 7, and 8. Oue has a 

 disk with human features engraved upon it, another has a cross with equal 

 arms, and another a T-shaped cross. All have more or less auxiliary 

 ornamentation. In Fig. 9 I present a bracelet of beads and pendants 

 from Peru which illustrates one of the simpler uses of pendants. I have 

 not learned whether the parts of this ornament were originally arranged 

 as given in the cut or not ; the original stringing may have been some- 

 what different. The beads are mostly of shell, and are of a variety of 

 colors, white, red, yellow, and gray. The discoidal and cylindrical forms 

 are both represented. The former range from oue-eighth to three-eighths 

 of an inch in diameter ; the latter are one-eighth of an inch in thick- 

 ness aud three-eighths in length. The larger pendants, made of 

 whitish shell, are carved to represent some life form, probably a bird; 

 a large perforation near the upper end passes through the head, two 

 oblique notches with deep lines at the sides, define the wings, and a 

 series of notches at the wide end rei)resent the tail. Two smaller 

 pendants are still simpler in form, while another, with two nearly cen- 

 tral perforations and notched edges, resembles a button. 



Eastern forms. — The great number of elaborately carved and engraved 

 gorgets of shell found among the antiquities of the Atlantic slope, all 

 of which need careful descriptions, so overshadow the simple forms 

 illustrated in Plate XL VI, that only a brief description of the latter need 

 be given. Rudeness of workmanship and simplicity of form do not in 

 any sense imply greater antiquity or a less advanced state of art. The 

 bimpler forms of plain pendants constitutedtheevery-day jewelry of the* 

 average people and, like beads, were probably used freely by all who de- 

 sired to do so. Many forms are found — circular, oval, rectangular, tri- 

 angular, pear-shaped, and annulai\ The more ordinary forms are found 

 in mounds and graves in all parts of the country ; other forms are more 

 restricted geographically, and probably exhibit features peculiar to the 

 works of a particular clan, tribe, or group of tribes. Even these simple 

 forms may have possessed sometotemic or mystic significance; it is not 

 impossible that the plaiuer disks may have had significant figures 

 painted upon them. Such of the forms as are found to have definite 

 geographic limits become of considerable interest to the archaeologist. 

 In method of manufacture they do not differ from the most ordinary 

 implements or beads, the margins being trimmed, the surfaces polished 

 and the perforations made in a precisely similar manner. 



In Plate XLVI I present a number of plain circular disks. The 

 larger specimens are often as much as four or even five inches in diam- 

 eter and the smaller fraternize with beads, as I have shown in Plate 

 XLV. Figs. 1 and 2 are from a mound at Paint Rock Ferry, Tenn. 

 They are neat, moderately thin, concavo-convex disks, with smooth sur- 



' Vide Kingsborough, Waldeck, Bancroft, &c. 



