I have already spoken casually of the use of beads for personal ornament, but it will probably be better to enlarge a little upon the subject at this point.
Beads are generally found in the graves of ancient peoples in a loose or disconnected state, the strings on which they were secured having long since decayed. We cannot, therefore, with certainty, restore the ancient necklaces and other composite ornaments; but we can form some idea of their character by a study of the objects of which they were made and the positions held by these objects at the period of exhumation. Much can also be learned by a study of the ornaments of modern peoples in similar stages of culture.
As a rule, the combinations in the pendant ornaments of the ancient American seem to have been quite simple. Being without glass, and practically without metals, they had few of the resources of the modern savage. Their tastes were simple and congruous, not having been disturbed by the debasing influence of foreign innovation, which is the cause of so much that is tawdry and incongruous in the art of modern barbarians.
A curious example of a modern necklace is given by Professor Haldeman,[65] who had in his possession an Abyssinian necklace "composed of European beads, cowries (Cyprea shell), a triangular plate of glass, two small copper coins, small spheric brass buttons, cornelian, date-seeds, numerous cloves pierced through the sides, a fragment of wood, a bit of cane, and an Arab phylactery."
Something can be learned of the practices of the ancient Americans in the use of beads and pendant ornaments generally, by a study of the remains of their paintings and sculptures—such, for instance, as may be found in the Goldsborough manuscripts or the superb lithographs of Waldeck, examples of which are given in Plate XLV.
In a number of cases necklaces of the mound-builders have been found upon the necks of skeletons, just as they were placed at the time of burial.
Captain Atwater in describing the contents of a mound at Marietta, Ohio, makes the statement that on the breast of a skeleton "lay a stone ornament, with two perforations, one near each end, through which passed a string, by means of which it was suspended around the wearer's neck. On the string, which was made of sinew, and very much injured by time, were placed a great many beads made of ivory or bone."[66]
A similar necklace is described by Mr. Matson, in the Ohio Centennial Report, p. 127. It was found on the skeleton of a little girl, and was so made as to be larger in the center of the neck in front, tapering almost to a point at the middle of the back. On page 129 of the same volume much more varied uses of bead ornaments are suggested. Mr. Matson describes four skeletons, on each of which shell beads were found. In three cases they had been placed about the neck only; in the fourth, nearly thirty yards of beads had been used. There were four strands about the neck, crossing over on the breast and back and passing down between the legs. Strings passed down the legs to the feet, and were also found along the arms and around the wrists.
The arrangement of the various parts of a necklace or string of pendants is found to be much alike the world over, consisting of a strand of beads, small toward the ends and increasing in size toward the middle, where a central bead or pendant of peculiar form or unusual size is placed.
The practices of modern barbarians in the employment of beads as ornaments are extremely varied. They are employed in dressing the hair, in head-dresses and plumes, and pendants to these; as pendants to the hair, ears, nose, and lips; as necklaces and bracelets; as belts for the waist and sashes to be thrown across the shoulders; and as anklets and pendent ornaments to all parts of the costume.