Dr. E. B. Tylor[10] has pointed out the tendency of higher civilization to give up savage ornaments. Not the most primitive possibly, but seemingly the most barbarous, are the ornaments which are fastened into the body in special orifices which are pierced to receive them. It is true that in this country we do not make holes in our lips for the insertion of wooden plugs two or three inches across, and the only nose ornaments which we see are on the faces of the Hindu ayahs who have come over from India with their white nurselings; but still many among the population pierce their ears for the reception of earrings. In the higher social ranks ear-drops are now worn which do not require the ear to be perforated for their reception; but among the lower orders—as, for instance, those who live in canal-boats—the ears of men, women, and children are still pierced.
Of ornaments which can be attached to the person without injuring it there are more in use, but they are practically confined in civilized countries to the neck, arms, and head. Of those which are fastened to clothes we will not for the moment speak. Beads, which at the moment of writing seem to be greatly in fashion, or their representatives, take us back to the very earliest men of whose work we have any knowledge. In the caves where the Stone Age men of the mammoth period lived there have been found periwinkle shells, which were bored to form bracelets or necklaces, just as nowadays native tribes and æsthetic ladies still make use of the more ornamental and beautiful exotic shells. The prehistoric Egyptians who, it has been calculated, flourished about 6000 B.C., had necklaces of beads cut out from pieces of shell, and others made of many different materials. Among the earliest remains in our own country beads are found, and throughout the historic period everywhere they seem to have held their sway.
We have already mentioned how easy it is for ornaments to be used as currencies, owing to the facility with which they may be carried on the person, and beads for many centuries have been used—as in Africa for instance—in the place of money. There are on the west coast of that continent still to be seen “aggries” similar to those which the Arab traders brought with them from Egypt as early as the seventeenth dynasty. At the present day beads of various kinds—for only particular varieties will buy certain commodities—are made and exported to Africa to be used in trading.
While speaking of Egyptian beads, it might be said that, as in other matters of art, the Egyptians excelled in the making of beads. Some—known as blue popo beads, which found their way to West Africa—are worth more than their weight in gold at the present day, and the most skilful of the Venetian beadmakers are unable to imitate them sufficiently well to induce the natives to accept them.
Chains for the neck in our time do not assume very massive proportions, except those which are used as symbols of office in the case of mayors and by the members of various knightly orders. These take us back to the time of Richard II, when such ornaments came into vogue.
Among savage races metal rings find much favour as ornaments, and they illustrate the fact that the lady who wears the minimum of clothes will put up with the height of inconvenience, not to say pain, just as her over-dressed and more civilized white sister will do, in order to be in the height of fashion. The Padaung women put metal collars round their necks when they are young children till these number between twenty and thirty, and the necks of the wearers are stretched out in the most grotesque and uncomfortable fashion. (See Plate [VI].) African belles will wear great copper rings on their limbs, which get so hot in the sun that an attendant has to carry water with which to occasionally cool them down. The wearing of armlets and bracelets has never been confined to women. Men among the Greeks did not wear them, but among the Romans they did. Armlets were conferred on soldiers for heroic deeds, and even now the rank of non-commissioned officers in the army is indicated by stripes on their sleeves.
Two Padaung women, showing the numerous metal collars which they wear round their necks.
(See page [114].)