though that is semi-transparent, of a bright blue, resembling
cornelian, (which is frequently found in these countries,) and said to
be obtained in the same manner as the Aggry bead. Isert describes them
"as a sort of coral, with inlaid work." "The art of making beads,"
(says Mr. Bowditch,) "is entirely lost, or was never known in these
parts. It is not improbable that, in the golden age of Egypt, she had
communication with the Gold Coast; indeed, it has been thought, and
perhaps not without some reason, that the Gold Coast is the
Ophir of Solomon.* The variegated strata
of the Aggry beads are so firmly united, and so imperceptibly blended,
that the perfection seems superior to art: some resemble Mosaic work;
the surfaces of others are covered with flowers and regular patterns, so
very minute, and the shades so delicately softened one into the other, and
into the ground of the bead, that nothing but the finest touch of a pencil
could equal them. The agatized parts disclose flowers and patterns,
deep in the body of the bead; and thin shafts of opaque colours, running
from the centre to the surface. The natives pretend that imitations
are made in the country, which they call
boiled
beads, alleging that they are broken Aggry beads, ground into powder
and boiled together, and that they know them because they are heavier;
but this I find to be mere conjecture among themselves, unsupported by
anything like observation or discovery. The natives believe that,
by burying the Aggry beads in sand, they not only grow but breed.
The colouring 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