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ABORIGINAL USE OF PEARLS
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497
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present
condition. Where they have been placed with cremated bodies, they are,
of course, much damaged, being blackened and largely decomposed.
Otherwise, although injured in color and luster, the mere fact of
burial in the ground has not entirely ruined them. They are generally
perforated, so as to be strung or attached to garments, and traces of
both these methods of use are sometimes clearly shown.
The
term "pearl beads," often employed by writers, is uncertain in meaning;
as it may refer either to actual pearls, bored so as to be strung, or
to imitations thereof made from pearly shell. With regard to this
point, although such quantities have been obtained, there seems to have
been very little close examination as to their structure, which would
at once indicate the facts, according as the minute layers of the
pearly material are concentric or not. The only distinct testimony is
that we have cited above from Prof. Joseph Jones,1 who
states that he has examined large numbers, and found them to be
apparently cut from shells. He makes the suggestion that they may have
been carved from the thicker portions of the fresh-water Unios. This is
not only probable, but would go far to solve the mystery of the
enormous numbers found, as compared with anything known of the yield of
genuine pearls by these mollusks, even with all the pearl hunting of
recent years. An interesting fact bearing directly on this question is
the discovery in the Taylor mound, at Oregonia, Warren County, Ohio, of
several Unio shells in which had been made a circular hole, two thirds
of an inch in diameter, either for some ornamental use of the shell or
to extract pieces to be shaped into beads. These may have been made in
either of two ways. Firstly, by breaking pieces of the shell from one
of the valves, as a lapidary "roughs out" a piece of gem material
before he begins to grind it into shape; or, secondly, by cutting out a
circular disk of shell by means of a hollow copper drill or a hollow
reed, just as they perforated hard pieces of quartz or granite for
pipes, or as they trephined circular disks from the skulls. Decorated
disks of Unio shell were also found in the same mound. If the ancient
people made beads in this manner, there is little difficulty in
accounting for the quantities described, especially in connection with
the evident gathering of Unios on a large scale, as shown by the widely
distributed shell-heaps already described. They certainly did make
beads from various marine shells, and these are found with the pearl
beads in many of the mounds, as particularly noted by Professor Jones,
cited above, and by others.
In
the recent exploration of the Harness mound, by Professor Mills, a very
curious discovery was made of imitation pearls of a kind never before
met with; these were made of clay, modeled apparently after
1 See p. 494·
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