386 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The use of shells as ornaments is very pronounced among these people. In addi- 
tion to those mentioned, bullas and land shells were strung in a similar manner. These 
were white, gray, yellow, frequently with pink-tinted tips. An interesting necklace 
consisted of operculums, 2 inches in length, of some large shell, attached by a fiber 
and decorated with yellow feathers. 
From Peru life size models of the Zaperos and Jiveros Indians, residing on the 
Montana of Peru, were shown fully attired with their ornaments. These tribes decorate 
their head-dresses, shoulder-bands, and breasts with a profusion of circular, diamond- 
shaped, and pear-shaped pieces of a brilliant Anodon shell. These they arrange to 
form stars and other patterns by sewing a number of them to the fabric, generally by 
means of perforations, and they frequently have them swinging as pendants from the 
dress. They also use small Unio shells, the wing-cases of beetles, white and red dried 
seeds, teeth of animals, etc. 
Passing to the historical accounts of the early explorers of the New World, we 
find that Columbus himself and all the Spanish discoverers were attracted and 
impressed by the frequent and abundant possession of pearls among the natives. 
These pearls among the West Indian peoples and the coast tribes were probably from 
the marine pearl oyster which occurs to some extent along the shores of the Caribbean 
Sea. On the mainland of North America, however, it seems clear that the pearls 
found by DeSoto and his party all through the present Southern States must have 
come largely from the Unios of the adjacent lakes and streams, like those possessed 
by the prehistoric Mound-builders before. 
Omitting for the present many interesting accounts of pearl treasures observed 
in the West Indies, and by Balboa and others on or near the Pacific shores of Central 
America and the Isthmus — which last relate to the true marine pearl oyster — we 
may pass to the accounts of De Soto’s expedition, and the pearls found and seen 
throughout the whole region from Florida to upper Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. 
When the king of Spain made Hernando DeSoto governor of Cuba and conqueror 
of Florida, with the title of Adelantado, his concession provided that one-fifth of all 
the gold and silver, precious stones, and pearls won in battle, on entering towns, or 
obtained by barter with 1 the Indians, be reserved to the Crown. It was further stipu- 
lated that the gold and silver, gems, pearls, and other treasures which might be found 
and taken, as well in the graves, sepulchers, ocues, or temples of the Indians as 
in other places where they were accustomed to offer sacrifices to idols, or in other 
concealed religious precincts or buried houses, or in any other public place u should 
be equally divided between the king and the party making the discovery.” 1 It is 
evident that among the valuable trophies of this expedition precious pearls were confi- 
dently anticipated $ and that the Spaniards were not disappointed in this expectation 
the early narratives abundantly testify. These establish beyond all controversy 
that pearls were used as ornaments among the Indians of Florida and the South. 
It is related how, near the Bay of Espiritu Santo (now Tampa Bay), in Florida, 
the followers of DeSoto came upon the town of an Indian chief called Ucita. His 
house stood near the beach, and at the other end of the town was a temple, on the 
top of which perched a wooden fowl with gilded eyes. Within these eyes were pearls 
such as the Indians greatly valued, piercing them for beads and stringing them to wear 
about their necks and wrists. When the Indian queen welcomed the Spanish adven- 
turer to the hospitalities of the Outifachiqui she drew from over her head a long string 
1 Antiquities of the Southern Indians, by Charles C. Jones (New York, 1873), p. 467. 
