----------------+-------------------------+------------------+------ | In the cross. | | +-------------------------+ In the |Total. |Longitudinal | Transverse| circle, exclusive| | arm. | arm. | of cross. | ----------------+-------------+-----------+------------------+------ No. 1 (Fig. 1) | 10 | 9 | 23 | 41 No. 2 (Fig. 3) | 10 | 12 | 27 | 48 No. 3 (Fig. 2) | 11 | 9 | 23 | 42 No. 4[A] | 9 | 9 | 20 | 37 No. 5[A] | 12 | 11 | 29 | 51 No. 6[B] | 9 | 9 | 20 | 37 ----------------+-------------+-----------+------------------+------ [A] Schoolcraft: Notes on Iroquois, p. 233. [B] From sketch by Mr. Beauchamp. The central circlet having been counted with each arm of the cross, the total number of circlets in each specimen will be one less than the sum of the three columns. These circlets may be numerals. The design may be significant of some rank, the badge of a secret order, or the totem of a clan. The general arrangement of the figures upon the face of these disks suggests an incipient calendar. These beads are doubtless American in origin, as nothing of a similar form, so far as I can learn, occurs in European countries. The fact that they are found in widely separated localities indicates that they were probably used in trade since the advent of the whites. This is possibly some form of bead held in high esteem by tribes of the Atlantic coast when first encountered by the whites who have taken up its manufacture for purposes of trade. BEADS AS ORNAMENTS. 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.