402 SOME ETHNOGRAPHIC PHASES OF CONCHOLOGY. 



found their last resting place. One of these remarkable sepulchral 

 depositories which was carefully explored, was found to measure 

 forty feet in length, with a breadth of eight feet ; and throughout this 

 entire area it consisted, to a depth of six feet, of a solid mass of 

 human crania and bones. Along with numerous specimens of clay 

 pipes, beads, amulets of red pipe stone, copper bracelets, and per- 

 sonal ornaments of different kinds, obtained from those Beverly os- 

 suaries, there were found various shell-beads, a worked gorget made 

 from a large sea-shell, with the original nacre of red not entirely 

 gone, and two entire specimens of the large tropical sea-shells al- 

 ready referred to. One of these furnishes another specimen of the 

 pyi'ula pervej'sa, and the other is described by Mr. Schoolcraft, as the 

 pyrula spirata, a shell said to be peculiar to the western coasts of 

 Central and South America. The beads found along with these tro- 

 pical univalves, and made apparently from others of the like kind, 

 appear to have corresponded to those of a remarkable southern dis- 

 covery iu the Grrave Creek mound, Virginia, described by Mr. 

 Schoolcraft in the Transactions of the American Ethnological So- 

 ciety. 



The interest which pertains to such Indian relics, manifestly de- 

 pends on the fact of thus discovering along the shores of our great 

 inland chain of fresh-water lakes, specimens of the large sea- 

 shells of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of Central America, 

 and of the "West Indian Isles. The attractions oifered by this 

 and other allied species of the large and beautiful tropical 

 shells are ^ufi&ciently apparent, and, as we have seen, are by 

 no means limited to the untutored tastes of the American In- 

 dian, nor to the products of the Mexican coasts. Their em- 

 ployment in the construction of vessels for ordinary use has al- 

 ready been referred to ; but other and more important applications 

 of some of them to special and sacred uses among the inhabitants of 

 the old world seem to offer illustrations more in accordance with the 

 discoveries here referred to. In India, China, and Siam, this is 

 especially the case. There the Pyrum, and others of the large and 

 beautiful shells of the Indian Ocean, of the species Turbinella, are 

 highly prized by the natives of the neighbouring districts ; and this 

 is especially the case with a sinistrorsal variety found on the coasts 

 of Tranquebar and Ceylon, and made use of by the Cingalese in 

 some of their most sacred rites, 



