SwANax)N] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 519 



In describing "an Indian in his Summer Dress," Beverley ( 1705, bk. 3, 

 pp. 3-4) says, "at his Breast is a Tablet or fine Shell, smooth as Polish'd 

 Marble, which sometimes also has etched on it, a Star, Half Moon, or 

 other Figure, according to the maker's fancy." Beverley's figure is 

 adapted from Hariot (1893, p. 38) , but the original contains no gorget 

 nor the accompanying text mention of any. 

 Lawson remarks, in introducing the subject of Indian shell money: 



They oftentimes make, of this shell, a sort of gorge, which they wear about 

 their neck in a string ; so it hangs on their collar, whereon sometimes is engraven 

 a cross, or some odd sort of figure, which comes next in their fancy. There are 

 other sorts valued at a doe skin, yet the gorges will sometimes sell for three or 

 four buck skins ready dressed. There be others, that eight of them go readily 

 for a doe skin. (Lawson, 1860, p. 315.) 



And Catesby : 



The military men especially, wear at their breasts a concave shell, cut to the 

 form of, tho' somewhat less than a gorget ; this is an universal decoration with 

 all the Indians of the northern continent ; and as all their mechanism^ for want 

 of good tools, is performed with great labour, so these gorgets bear a great price 

 in proportion to their largeness and carving. (Catesby, 1731-43, vol. 2, p. ix.) 



Spark speaks of "vnicornes homes" worn by Timucua Indians 

 about their necks, and these may have been in the nature of shell 

 gorgets, or else were of bone, as the name would seem to indicate 

 (Hakluyt, 1847-89, vol. 3, p. 616; Swanton, 1922, p. 351). A shell 

 gorget was worn by the Chickasaw high priest, and shell gorgets were 

 remembered as late as 1910 by one of my Creek informants who had 

 lived in Alabama before the removal. At any rate the Natchez furnish 

 us with one clear case of the use of them on the lower Mississippi in 

 historic times. 



Dumont de Montigny says. 



The savages also wear on their necks plates about 3 or 4 inches in diameter, 

 made of pieces of this shell (burgau), which they shape in the same manner 

 on stones and to which they give a round or oval shape. They then pierce them 

 near the edge by means of fire and use them as ornaments. (Dumont, 1753, 

 vol. 1, p. 95; Swanton, 1911, p. 55.) 



Numbers of these have been obtained in the Gulf region in the course 

 of archeological investigation, particularly in the Caddo country 

 and around the southern Appalachians. 



Possibly metal gorgets may have displaced in part the ones made 

 of shell. At any rate, more references to them have come down to 

 us. In many cases, however, the reference is so general that it is 

 impossible to tell whether we are dealing with a single metal plate or 

 a number of them. They shade into neqklaces composed of metallic 

 beads. Hariot figures a woman of Roanoac wearing a copper gorget, 

 and Barlowe says that one of the Indian men of that region bought 

 a tin dish and promptly hung it before his breast as a breastplate 

 (Hariot, 1893, pi. 7; Burrage, 1906, p. 232). Probably this was in- 



