226 VALUE OF THE ABALONE TO THE INDIANS. 



expanded, are protruded tiny waving feelers that warn him of the ap- 

 proach of any danger in time to withdraw underneath his shield. 



To the Indians of California the haliotis was very valuable. They 

 wore it as an ornament about their necks and in their hair. The tribes 

 of the interior were so attracted by its glitter that they were willing to 

 pay a large price in barter to possess it. A horse was not an infrequent 

 exchange for a fine specimen. I have seen these shells, rudely polished, 

 dangling in the braids of Indian braves, and around the necks of vainglo- 

 rious squaws of every tribe from JN T ew Mexico northward to the far upper 

 Missouri plains. Recent explorations in the prehistoric mounds of the 

 Ohio Valley show that this shell was possessed by many families of the 

 builders who buried them in the graves of friends ; yet it is not at all 

 strange that they should have travelled so far, when we recall the sys- 

 tematically conducted trading carried on among the red men, and the 

 distances some of their traders are known to have wandered. 



By stopping the holes, this dish-shaped shell became useful as a recep- 

 tacle. Where it was common it served in this way all sorts of household 

 purposes; but in the interior it was devoted chiefly to the more select 

 purpose of preserving paint -earths and valuable trinkets. The heavier 

 ones were sometimes broken in such a way as to be mounted upon han- 

 dles, hatchet- wise, and, in the shape of cleavers or bludgeons, became 

 formidable weapons in the hands of savage warriors. 



The chief utility of the abalone, however, was as the principal material 

 out of which the natives of the southern part of California fabricated 

 their ornament-coins which served as money, and the making of which 

 is described in an ensuing chapter. 



