PENDANTS.
It would probably be vain to attempt to determine how pendant ornaments first came into use, whether from some utilitarian practice or through some superstitious notion. It matters not, however, whether the first pendant was an implement, a utensil, or a fetichitic talisman; it has developed by slow stages into an ornament upon which has been lavished the best efforts of culture and skill. The simple gorget of shell suspended upon the naked breast of the preadamite is the prototype of many a costly jewel and many a princely decoration. With the American savage it was a guardian spirit, invested with the mystery and the power of the sea, and among the more cultured tribes became in time the receptacle of the most ambitious efforts of a phenomenal art. The important place the gorget has taken in ornament and as a means of displaying personal aggrandizement has made it a most powerful agent in the evolution of the arts of taste.
As a rule the larger and more important pendants are employed as gorgets, but vast numbers of the smaller specimens are strung with beads at intervals along the strings, attached as auxiliary pendants to the larger gorgets, suspended from the nose, ears, and wrists, or form tinkling borders to head-dresses and garments. These pendants consist either of entire shells, or of parts of shells, pierced or grooved to facilitate suspension. The purely artificial forms are infinitely varied. The character of the shell, however, has much to do with the form of the finished ornaments, deciding their thickness and often their outline. In size they range from extremely minute forms to plates six or more inches in diameter. The perforations, in position and number, are greatly varied, but as a rule the larger discoidal pendants will be found to have two marginal perforations for suspension.
These nicely-polished shell-disks afforded tempting tablets for the primitive artist, and retain many specimens of his work as an engraver. The engraved specimens, however, should be treated separately, according to the class of design which they contain. Plain pendants need but a brief notice, and may be treated together as one group, with such subdivisions only as may be suggested by their form, their derivation, or their geographical distribution.
Plain pendants.—It will be unnecessary to cite authorities to show that our ancient peoples were fond of pendant ornaments, and wore them without stint, but to illustrate the manner in which they were used and the methods of combining them with other articles of jewelry in necklaces, bracelets, &c., I shall refer briefly to the literature of the period of American discovery.
The inhabitants of Mexico are said to have been very simple in the matter of dress, but displayed much vanity in their profuse employment of personal ornament. Besides feathers and jewels, with which they adorned their clothes, they wore pendants to the ears, nose, and lips, as well as necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. The ear ornaments of the poor were shells, pieces of crystal, amber, and other brilliant stones, but the rich wore pearls, emeralds, amethysts, or other gems, set in gold.[122] The priestly personages so graphically delineated in the ancient Aztec manuscripts are as a rule loaded down with pendant ornaments. In traveling north along the west coast of Mexico the Friar Niza encountered Indians who wore many large shells of mother of pearl about their necks, and farther up toward Cibola the inhabitants wore pearl shells upon their foreheads;[123] and Cabeça de Vaca when among the pueblos of New Mexico noticed beads and corals that came from the "South Sea." Ornaments made from marine shells are found in many of the ancient ruins to-day. They are also highly valued by the modern Indians of this region.
In the earliest accounts of the Indians of the Atlantic coast we find frequent mention of the use of pendants and gorgets, and the manner of wearing them as ornaments. Beverly, after having described beads made of a shell resembling the English buglas, says that they also make "runtees" of the same shell, and grind them as smooth as peak. "These are either large like an oval Bead, drill'd the length of the Oval, or else they are circular and flat, almost an Inch over, and one Third of an Inch thick, and drill'd edgeways. Of this Shell they also make round Tablets of about four Inches Diameter, which they polish as smooth as the other, and sometimes they etch or grave thereon Circles, Stars, a half Moon, or any other Figure suitable to their Fancy. These they wear instead of Medals before or behind their Neck, and use the Peak, Runtees, and Pipes for Coronets, Bracelets, Belts, or long Strings hanging down before the Breast, or else they lace their Garments with them, and adorn their Tomahawks, and every other thing that they value."[124] The "Pipes" here spoken of were probably long, heavy cylindrical beads.
In referring to this class of ornaments, Lafitau says: "The collars which the savages sometimes wear around the neck are about a foot in diameter, and are not different from those which one now sees on some antiques, on the necks of statues of barbarians. The northern savages wear on the breast a plate of hollow shell, as long as the hand, which has the same effect as that which was called Bulla among the Romans."[125]
Wood, speaking of the Indians of Northern New England, in 1634, says: "Although they be thus poore, yet is there in them the sparkes of naturall pride, which appeares in their longing desire after many kinds of ornaments, wearing pendants in their eares, as formes of birds, beasts, and fishes carved out of bone, shels, and stone, with long bracelets of their curious wampompeag and mowhackees, which they put about their necks and loynes."[126]
Kalm says of the Indians of Lorette, near Quebec, Canada, that "round their necks they have a string of violet wampums, with little white wampums between them. These wampums are small, of the figure of oblong pearls, and made of the shells which the English call clams. At the end of the wampum strings many of the Indians wear a large French silver coin, with the king's effigy, on their breasts; others have a large shell on the breast, of a fine white colour, which they value very high, and is very dear; others, again, have no ornament at all round the neck."[127]