ANTIQUITY OF THE PEARL
undivided
earth knew nothing of whirring lathes and drills; of hardened points of
steel turning with lightning rapidity and unerring precision. Slowly
they burned a way through the gem with hot copper wire, destroying
thereby with ruthless ignorance the delicate beauty of jewels fit for
royalty. To them the slender prongs of gold with which the modern
jeweller holds the lustrous balls, uncovered and in safety, were
unknown. Instead, the savage set them in holes bored in the teeth of
animals, possibly to enhance the relics of a great fight with some
fierce beast that succumbed finally to his prowess: possibly to add
beauty to the grim reminders of her lord's valor when he hung them
round the neck of a favored mate. The Indian of this continent was much
more primitive in the art of the jeweller than in the manufacture of
implements for war and the chase. Gaudy colors extracted from plants
and minerals appealed more to his unthinking eye than a chaste form of
beauty. With these he could stain his blankets, record on skins of
slaughtered animals his deeds, or paint in hideous signs upon his face
the malignancy of
41
