The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-14
BEADS, NEW AND OLD.
THE BEAD COLLECTING Mi
 NIf.
The Beads of Various Nations.

the queen has this to say: Within the
 past year there has been a complete
 craze for collecting beads, but very few
 of the womenkind who search high and
 low among town and country shops for
 something new as far as their knoWl-
 edge Is concerned, or something uncom-
 mon in the matter of beads for their
 neck chains, realize the deep signifi-
 canoe that has from time inlmemorial
 been attached to them. A great deal of
 mystery is connected with those which
 hail from Egypt, and mummy heads
 found i n the tonbs have had a far
 reaching meaning and wider use than
 as mere ornaments to the modern Wo-
 man, who does not disdain to wear
 them Pretty we'll every religion from
 times past has had it's own particular
 heads. As an assistance in prayer to
 God and the Virgin, thousands have
 been handed down to us polished by the
 mere manipulation of the hand. As
 amulets they represent the prayer it.
 self to the spirit of evil, and sometimes
 they appeal to the spirit of good, the
 petitioner hoping thereby for some de-
 sired object or for self-preservation
 Prayer'heads have descended from cen-
 tury to century, not only in South Afri
 ca, but in the east. Chinese heads in
 soapstone are all perforated, and many
 of them are supposed to be of unt old
 age. The Hindoos and the Buddhists
 use them alike for prayer and as tal-
 1slnan. A vast number have been em-
 ployed from time to time as money.
 There is hardly museum in the
 country which does not contain some
 specimens. Some of the Persian beads
 display as many as ninety-nine names
 of the gods. The ancient beads under
 the term of aggri appear among the
 treasures of the king of Ashanti.
 They were supposed to be made of va
 rious earths rich in color, and have
 fine glaze on the surface. There are
 plenty of specimens at the British Mu-
 scum, and many have been found in an- cient tombs The term beads is of wide significance; 1t includes stags, fawns or wolf's teeth, worn by the North Ameri- can Indian children to promote easy teethlng, and many necklaces among savage and semf-savage tribes were adopted incidentally as well as for or nament. Collectors specially prize what is called the sun bead, made of glass of greenish hue with alternate stripes of dark blue and red down one side, while some on the fiattened ends show a series of stars or suns with twelve extended rays, which add great ly to their interest and value. No doubt these earlier products of glass making were used as money and objects of bar ter Even the Venetian merchant traded with these and those that re- main are exceedingly rare; four of them are treasured in the Guildhall Museum.
 "That wonderful nation, the Japanese, have contributed to the worlds collec- tion of beads some very curious and ancient ones in bronze with graven sig natures, while the Chinese have hand somely carved ones, each bored. They are made in boxwood, some taking the form of bugles. A very curious range of much prized beads display the Osiris eye, mostly in blue, red and black Heads and eyes in glass come to us from ancient days, and among the most prized relics in ivory strung as beads is the Christ head, accompanied by the hands and feet. A spear head in silver Is supposed to represent thunderbolt, some others take the form of a hare, while the scarabaeus head is thought to typify the rams head gods of the Egyp- tians, and many of them are in exist ence still. Glass or porcelain seals in blue or green take the form of beads, and the cartouche Is very important section, oblong in form, like small pie lures, possibly intended to hang on the wall There Is without doubt the deep- est symbolism in beads of the greatest antiquity. They were not by any means all of them round. A sprie of rue the oimeruta, comes to us from Etruscan sources, and in ancient days the Jewish nation hung about them the l pentacal or Solomon seed, likewise | bead. The Neapolitan crescent, which l served to ward off the evil eye and pro l cure love to the wearer, was also used | as an amulet that is protection to it's l owner The Greeks for the same pur- l pose wore grasshopper, just IS others l carry phylacteries or slips from the Ko- ] ran
 soThe totun1s or badges of savage l tribes were invaluable to their owners | as their enemies never killed any one |
 
 some way to be associated with the | mark of Cain. The Celts made bead ! charms of spear heads, elf boats and ! and there are traces of these charms as umulets in Scotland. | Amulet is of Arabian derivation from a word Hamalet, which means that which is suspended Many ancient na- lions threaded stones, which they | pierced with much trouble Rubies thus perforate ed have been handed down and the Persians threaded them on ele- ohants' hairs. A great many interest," Ing beads were found in British bar rows and are supposed to belong to the Druids. They are of every variety of materiaI-amber, jet, horn, ivory and stone. Amber was plentifully found on he Baltic shores, but it was the Ro- man women who first introduced 1t as and specially favored the beads. With regard to prayer beads, .osaries are said to have been found among the remains of ancient Egypt l md were common fin India and China. l It was supposed to have been only in he time of St. Augustine that Chris ians adopted them and the beads ,alled Gaudiae, accompanied by Ave Marias, it was hoped would deliver a ,oul from purgatory.
 ssTn studying the subject it is always |