Ornaments
The men usually wear silver rings on the fourth digit of one or other hand. Often earrings are worn by the men and these are not uncommonly of gold. Harkness says that men sometimes wore chains of silver round the neck, but it is doubtful whether these are ever worn now. Formerly it seems that men used to wear far more solid rings, and one such ring is preserved which is said to have belonged to the hero or god Kwoten.
The ornaments of the women are more numerous and take the form of bracelets or bangles; armlets, often adorned with bunches of cowries; necklaces, sometimes made of silver coins; earrings; and a brass circlet worn round the waist. These ornaments are usually of brass or silver. At one time they seem to have been very massive, Breeks recording that a pair of brass armlets worn on one arm weighed six pounds. Formerly gold ornaments seem to have been commonly worn, and, so far as one can judge from older accounts and illustrations, it seems that Toda jewellery has greatly degenerated and is of a very paltry kind compared with that worn in the past. [[580]]