252 



ORNAMENTS FOR BfPLEMENTS AND UTENSILS. 



fragments only have been found, though possibly some of these may 

 have .been children's toys. I have also included under this general term 

 of " ornaments " the materials used as paint, which, judging from its 

 abundance in the graves, was largely employed to decorate the bodies 

 of the Indians of ancient as well as of recent times. 



The fact that the Indians of California, in common with savages gen- 

 erally, often decorated their implements and utensils with the same mate- 

 rials which they employed for personal ornament, is proved by articles 

 collected from the graves ; as, for instance, the decoration of the rims of 

 the large stone mortars, on which, held in place by asphaltum, are pieces 

 of the pearly shell of Haliotis, or, sometimes, the perfect shells of two or 

 three beautiful species of Cyprea ; C. spaclicea particularly being employed 

 on the mainland. Another method of ornamenting the rims of these mor- 

 tars consisted in cutting away the dorsal portion of the shells of Cyprea and 

 fastening them to the mortar, by their cut surface, with asphaltum, so as to 

 exhibit the lips of the shell, with their serrated edges. Such a cut shell is 

 represented on Plate XIII, Fig. 52. 



On a previous page a figure has been given of a wooden sword, the 

 handle of which was inlaid with small pieces of pearl shell, and on Plate 

 XII, Figs. 30, 31, 32, are represented portions of such inlaid work of shell, 

 which probably once formed part of a handle of a sword buried with its 



Fig. 124. 



owner in a grave at 



La Patera. Mention 

 has also been made 

 of a portion of another 

 inlaid handle of a 

 sword from a grave 

 on Santa Catalina Isl- 

 and. 



Fig. 124 is an 

 engraving of another 



Handle with shell ornaments. handle, Very likely of 



a knife or sword, found by Dr. Yarrow's party in a grave at Dos Pueblos It 

 consists of a mass of asphaltum placed over the wooden handle of the imple- 



