90 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



an inch wide. The original string had been divided some years 

 before, and 15 of the brooches had been arranged on a ribbon in 

 the form of a cross. This was given to Mrs Converse, who was 

 adopted at the same time. The natural inference is that she re- 

 ferred to the size rather than form. Fig. 132 is also hers, but it is 

 smaller and the base is different. It will be observed that what she 

 considers the top of some of these the writer makes the base, thus 

 changing the character. 



Fig. 127 is the common size, and the writer had this from the 

 Allegany reservation. It differs from the next mainly in the 

 rounded points and small details of decoration. Fig. 129 was ob- 

 tained from the same source. Fig. 130 the writer got of the Onon- 

 dagas. It is slender for so large a size. Fig. 133, obtained with 

 the next at the same place, is also slender and has rounded points. 

 Fig. 131 is a large size, and has a remarkably angular base. 



The class of brooches now to be illustrated by a few examples out 

 of very many, is a very curious one, and definitely proves that orna- 

 ment and not meaning was the great object in the manufacture and 

 use of all. These ornaments, now to be considered, embody the 

 square and compasses, with more or less accessories in the way of 

 decoration, and sometimes these are highly conventionalized. The 

 origin is plain when the resemblance is almost lost and this loss has 

 led to some erroneous interpretations. 



A friend writes: 



I fail to find in illustrations of jewelry ornamentation of either 

 the French, English or Dutch, designs that have been actually fol- 

 lowed in the hammered coin brooch of the Iroquois. In fact, I credit 

 him with entire originality, very curious in some cases, and again 

 there are suggestions of the white man's work ingeniously inter- 

 graven with his own conceptions of art not so rude or savage, that 

 it has not developed genius and invention. 



This question will not be discussed now; but it is true that the 

 designs of Indian brooches for the most part seem American designs. 

 It is very difficult — perhaps impossible — to find these designs practi- 

 cally anticipated in any other land. So much the writer had reason 

 to believe. Then came a revelation concerning these Masonic 



