PERSONAL ORNAMENTATION
Fig. 25—Mound-builder Jewelry.
Beads always have been popular with human beings as articles of personal adornment. The Mound-builders and other Indians used them in great numbers, samples of which are shown in the picture. From left to right there are: Beads made of fresh-water pearls, which are found in the mounds by the thousands; a “breast-pin” of sea-shell decorated with the effigy of an insect, and a Bear Tusk with a Pearl set in it, used as a pendant for a necklace.
The Mound-builders made Pendants and Beads and other ornaments, some of which were sewed onto cloth, out of Copper, Mica, Tortoise-shell, Stone and Bone. Many Buttons about as large around as a dime, made of sandstone and covered with thin layers of copper or silver, have been found in the burial mounds. Some of the Mound-builders even wore rings of copper on their fingers.