Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 115 



fef the Illinois River. Near by were also the remains of 

 a necklace composed of alternate pearls and bone beads. 

 The McEvers Mound in Montezuma, Pike Co., Illinois, 

 also yielded, according to D. I. Bushnell, the excavator, a 

 group of forty-five pearls, including one of beautiful lustre 

 weighing fifty-two grains.'^' 



The use of pearls as ornaments, and for depositing with 

 the remains of persons of distinction, was also customary 

 among the Indian tribes of Virginia. The accounts of early 

 explorers and colonists furnish us with many details as 

 regards the burial of pearls with the dead and their 

 use in religious rites. The first English colonists found 

 the Indians of Virginia esteeming pearls among their 

 favourite treasures and ornaments. An excellent account 

 of these Indians is given by Charles C. Willoughby in the 

 " American Anthropologist" (vol. ix., 1907). This article 

 is of great interest as dealing with the habits and customs 

 of the tribes occupying tidewater Virginia at the time 

 of the first colonization. The Indians, a branch of the 

 Algonquian stock, formed a powerful confederacy under 

 Powhatan comprising some thirty tribes. To the greater 

 chiefs tribute was paid in pearls, copper, beads, skins, etc. 

 Pearls were also used to adorn the native clothing, as 

 well as for necklaces and ear-pendants. Strachey, an 

 early explorer, reports having seen " manie chaynes and 

 braceletts (of pearls) worne by the people, and wee have 

 found plentie of them in the sepulchers of their kings, 

 though discoloured by burning the oysters in the fier, and 

 deformed by grosse boring." The writings of this and 

 other explorers give curious accounts and descriptions of 

 the " temples " within which, in a sort of sanctuary or 

 " chancel," were kept the dried bodies of deceased chiefs, 

 and an image of the god, called Okee, made in the shape 



i''^ Kunz and Stevenson, op. cil., p. 509. 



