Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/94

 the strings of tubular beads of gold hang down in front, like a golden veil. The details in these Burmese necklaces are often variously modified, the gold being wrought into flowers, or replaced by strings of pearl and gems, until all trace of their suggested origin is lost. By the side of Mr. FitzGerald’s collec- tion, I exhibited the “ fig-leaf ” worn by the women in the wilder parts of India, and which in many places is their only clothing. First was shewn the actual “fig-leaf,” the leaf of the sacred fig, or pipal, Ficus religiosa ; next a literal transcript of it in silver, and then the more or less conventionalised forms of it, but all keeping the heart-shape of the leaf; the surface ornamentation in these conventionalised silver leaves being generally a representation of the pipal tree itself, or some other tree, or tree-like form, suggesting the “Tree of Life” of the Hindu Paradise on Mount Meru. These silver leaves are sus- pended from the waist, sometimes, like the actual leaf, by a simple thread, but generally by a girdle of twisted silver with a serpent’s head where it fastens in front ; and this ornament is possibly the origin of the “heart and serpent” bracelets of European jewelry. In Algeria, a leaf-shaped silver ornament is worn by girls till they come to an age when more volumi- nous apparel is required; and it is the emblem of virginity throughout the Barbary [Berber] coast. The forms of the champaca [Michelia Champaca ] bud, and of the flowers of the babul [ Acacia arabica ] and scvcnti [ Chrysanthemum species], the name of which is familiar in England through the story of “Brave Seventi Bhai,” “the Daisy Lady,” in Miss Frere’s Old Deccan Days, are commonly used by Indian jewellers for necklaces and hairpins, as well as of the fruit of the avola or aonla Phyllanthus cmblica], and ambgul [Elceagnus Kaluga], and mango, or a mb M an gif era iiulica]. The bell-shaped earring, with smaller bells hanging within it, is derived from the flower of the sacred lotus; and the cone-shaped earrings of Cash- mere, in ruddy gold, represent the lotus flower-bed. The use