SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEiASTEiRN UNITED STATES 481 



ORNAMENTATION 

 WORK IN SHELL 



The ancient bead of the interior Indians of the South is said by 

 Adair (1775, p. 170) to have been made out of the conch shell, and 

 it was shaped by rubbing on a hard stone, but native beads were 

 supplanted at an early date by those of European manufacture. The 

 former varied in their sizes and other characteristics, but we know 

 little more than the general fact. The wampum with which those 

 who have read about the Indians are usually familiar was made 

 principally from the thick clam or quahog {Venus mercenaria)^ and 

 was not introduced into the Southeast — extensively at least — until 

 after white contact. 



One reason for the profuse use of beads as ornaments was the fact 

 that they also constituted a medium of exchange and could be made 

 useful in that capacity at a minute's notice besides furnishing 

 visible witness to the standing and credit of the wearer. They were 

 strung on threads by means of a little frame and thus used in the 

 ornamentation of hair ribbons, garters, belts, purse straps, and 

 moccasins. In spite of a statement by Adair, to be quoted presently, 

 one gets the impression that beads were not employed as extensively 

 by the Southeastern Indians as by those of the northeast and the 

 Plains, but this is probably due in large measure to an excessive 

 expansion in the use of such ornaments after the latter had begun 

 to import these from the whites. In the Southeast, trade in beads 

 had not attained maximum proportions before advancing civilization 

 seriously curtailed their use and put an end to it entirely for very 

 many purposes. 



Modification of the industry had already begun before the best 

 notices we are able to quote regarding it had been prepared. These 

 date from approximately the same period and are supplied by the 

 Virginia historian Beverley and by Lawson. The former treats 

 of beads in a special chapter devoted to The Treasure or Riches 

 of the Indians. He says: 



The Indians had nothing which they reckoned Riches, before the English went 

 among them, except Peak, Roenoke, and such like trifles made out of the Cunk 

 shell. These past with them instead of Gold and Silver, and serv'd them both 

 for Money, and Ornament. It was the English alone that taught them first to 

 put a value on their Skins and Furs, and to make a Trade of them. 



Peak is of two sorts, or rather of two colours, for both are made of one Shell, 

 tho of different parts; one is a dark Purple Cylinder, and the other a white; 

 they are both made in size, and figure alike, and commonly much resembling the 

 English Buglas, but not so transparent nor so brittle. They are wrought as 

 smooth as Glass, being one third of an inch long, and about a quarter, diameter, 

 strung by a hole drill'd thro the Center. The dark colour is the dearest, and 



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