Pomo girl

Description

Clam-shell beads of the kind here shown are still made by some of the old men. Fragments of shell are pierced and strung on a stem of the scouring-rush (Equisetum), which is then drawn backward and forward on a flat surface of sandstone until the fragments have become nearly circular. The feathered ornament is an ear-pendant, which in this case, because of its length and weight, is attached to a strand of hair. The large, dark-colored bead on one strand of the necklace is a cylinder of magnesite, a highly valued object