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CHAPTER XXI.
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS, AMULETS, ETC.
Among all savage tribes the love of ornament and finery is very great; though it cannot well be greater than that exhibited by more highly civilized races. It has, however, to content itself with decorations of a simpler kind, and requiring fewer mechanical appliances in their production; so that shells, feathers, and trophies of the chase, and ornaments wrought from bone and the softer, yet showy, kinds of stone, usually replace the more costly products of the loom and the jeweller's art.
The ornaments commonly found in this country associated with interments belonging to the period when stone implements were in use, are for the most part formed of jet, shale, and amber, and occasionally, as has already been mentioned, of bone, and possibly ivory, and even gold. Nearly all, however, appear to be characteristic of the time when stone was already being superseded by bronze for cutting purposes, and on this account, as well as from their not being implements, but personal decorations, some of them but slightly differing from those in use at the present day, I had at first some scruples in including them in this work. It would, however, appear incomplete, were I not to take a short review of some of the principal discoveries of such objects; and this will also incidentally be illustrative of some of the funeral customs of prehistoric times and of the use of amulets of stone.
The simplest form of ornament, if indeed it can be properly so called, is the button, which not unfrequently accompanies interments of an early date. The usual shape is that of an obtusely conical disc, in the base of which two converging holes are drilled so as to form a V-shaped passage, through which the cord for attachment could be passed. These buttons are formed of different materials, but most commonly of jet or shale.
