Note 83 — Chapter IV

The coloring matter of the blue beads has been proved, by experiment, to be iron; that of the yellow, without doubt, is lead and antimony, with a trifling quantity of copper, though not essential to the production of the color. The generality of these beads appear to be produced from clays colored in thin layers, afterwards twisted together into a spiral form, and then cut across: also from different colored clays raked together without blending. How the flowers and delicate patterns, in the body and on the surface of the rarer beads, have been produced, cannot be so well explained. Besides the suite deposited in the British Museum, I had the pleasure of presenting one of the most interesting kind to Baron Humboldt; and I have also sent one to Sir Richard Hoare, as it seemed to correspond so closely with the bead which he found in one of the barrows, and describes, as follows, in his History of Wiltshire. The notion of the rare virtues of the Glain Neidyr, as well as of the continued good fortune of the finder, accords exactly with the African superstitions. “A large glass bead, of the same imperfect petrefaction as the pully beads, and resembling also, in matter, the little figures that are found with the mummies in Egypt, and are to be seen in the British Museum. This very curious bead has two circular lines of opaque sky blue and white, which seem to represent a serpent entwined round a centre, which is perforated. This was certainly one of the Glain Neidyr of the Britons, derived from glain, which is pure and holy, and neidyr a snake. Under the word glain, Mr. Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, has given the following article: “The Glain neidyr, transparent stones, or adder stones, were worn by the different orders of the bards, each having its appropriate color. There is no certainty that they were worn from superstition originally; perhaps that was the circumstance which gave rise to it. Whatever might have been the cause, the notion of their rare virtues was universal in all places where the Bardic religion was taught. It may still be questioned whether they are the production of nature or art.” The beads which are the present object of my attention, are thus noticed by Bishop Gibson in his improved edition of Camden’s Britannia. “In most parts of Wales, and throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer eve (although in the time they do not all agree,) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies; and that by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed like a ring, about the head of one of them, which the rest, by continual hissing blow on till it comes off at the tail; and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a glass ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and children are persuaded) shall prosper in all their undertakings. The rings which they suppose to be thus generated are called Gleinu Nadroedh, i.e. Gemmæ Anguinum, whereof I have seen at several places about twenty or thirty. They are small glass annulets, commonly about half as wide as our finger rings, but much thicker; of a green color, usually, though some of them are blue, and others curiously waved with blue, red, and white. I have also seen two or three earthen rings of this kind, but glazed with blue, and adorned with transverse streaks in furrows on the outside. There seems to be some connection between the Glein Neidyr of the Britons, and the Ovum Anguinum mentioned by Pliny,[a] as being held in veneration by the Druids of Gaul, and to the formation of which he gives nearly the same origin. They were probably worn as an insigne, or mark of distinction, and suspended around the neck, as the perforation is not sufficiently large to admit the finger.”

The bead engraved in Tumulus No. 9, resembles closely a coarse sort of bead, still manufactured in Syria, brought over by Dr. Meryon. The glass globes dug up in Lincolnshire, and presented by Sir Joseph Banks to the British Museum, are very like a distinct sort of aggry bead, dug by the natives even more rarely than the others, but not larger than a moderate sized apple: they are more opaque than the other beads, and the ground or body is generally black, speckled confusedly with red, white, and yellow.

Aggry is the generic, not the abstract name; ‘awynnee’ is bead, but aggry is an exotic word no native can explain. When first I heard of similar beads having been lately dug in India, I associated for an instant the expectation that it might have been in the neighbourhood of Agra, and thus have thrown some light on the name; but it appears they were found in Malabar. I am indebted for the following account of this interesting discovery to a gentleman lately returned from India. “The bead you sent me is more like those I saw in India, than any I have seen before; but it is thicker and shorter; neither does the material of which it is formed exactly agree with those in India, which appear to be of a red glass, very like red carnelian (such, however, are frequent among the Aggry beads) with white lines of enamel, inlaid, as it were, in the body of the bead. I gave these to a friend in India, who promised to send them to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. The circles of stone in which these beads have been found, abound most in Malabar, in the neighbourhood of Calicut; but I have seen them in other parts of India, and I am of opinion that they might be traced throughout the whole of the southern peninsula. They are formed of large masses of rough stones, placed round in irregular circles, some of very large extent, some of smaller: they appear so much like natural rocks, that most persons would pass them unobserved. Several of these circles about three years since were excavated, in the vicinity of Calicut, and in the centre of each of them we found, at the depth of about five feet, a large earthen jar of the same shape as those found in Wiltshire, as near as we could judge, for it was broken to pieces: it was about four or five feet deep, its mouth in general closed with a square piece of granite: the beads were found at the bottom of these jars with some pieces of iron, apparently parts of swords and spears. There was an iron javelin found in one of these places, tolerably perfect: it was about five feet long, with a large iron knob at one end of it. In the centre of one of the circles we came to a flight of seven steps, which led to a cave excavated in the rock; it measured 11 feet in diameter, and 7 feet in its highest part; the entrance to it was a square opening of about 18 inches, which was closed up by an immense block of granite. We found in this place a great number of earthen pots of very curious shape; in one of these there were the remains of bones, which appeared to have been but imperfectly calcined; in several of the larger jars there were the husks of rice, which dropped into dust immediately they were opened. We found here also an iron tripod, and a very curious stone, somewhat similar to what the Indians now use for grinding their curry powder on. The large stones forming the circles were set upright and capped with still larger ones. They are not of granite, but of the stone of the country in which they are situated; they are of different sizes; I have seen some of them 10 or 12 feet high, and the large stone on the top from 10 to 12 feet in diameter, or perhaps more. Coimbatore is a district situated between the Coromandel and Malabar coasts; it is bounded on the east by the river Cavery, on the banks of which the tumuli are in general situated. In some, a few silver coins have been found, of a square figure, with characters on them, which none of the most learned Bramins have been as yet able to make out; it is in these also that remains of very large swords, &c. have been found. The Roman coins to the number of upwards of 90 were all of gold, and Nero’s; each of them had a cut or slit in it. They were not found in one of these barrows, but were discovered in a garden by one of the natives when digging: they were in a small copper pot. Pandu Kuri literally means Pandu’s caves or holes. Pandu is a very celebrated personage in the Hindoo Mythology, and a great warrior; it is common in India to ascribe to him all great works of antiquity; this term therefore only shews that those places are very ancient, and that the present inhabitants are quite ignorant of their origin.”