The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Bead frag- disc shaped, thick, poss polished?

item is from the Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

Part of a woman’s ornamental headdress (see also Ee70 a-b). The headdress (called the perak) is a long (69 cm), straight, narrow (9 cm tapering to 5.5 cm) strip, shaped like a cobra snake with a broad head and long, narrow tail, made of several layers of stiffened cotton textile or felt that is covered with red cotton textile. The head of the cobra is embellished with irregularly shaped stones that have been stitched to the surface (thirty-three pieces of turquoise and green malachite, along with four pieces of agate, two of which are surrounded by rings of turquoise inlay), and two silver kagu or amulets. The body and tail of the cobra are embellished with three long, vertical rows of white cowrie shells, and there is a small brass bell at the tip of the tail. Permanently hand stitched to the left side of the tail of the perak is a rectangular piece (9.8 cm x 33 cm) of similar design, called the chuti. It is embellished with nine vertical rows of coral beads, accented with lapis and jet beads; at the top of the chuti, there is a rectangular amulet with turquoise inlay and gold leaf. An oval shaped piece of agate in a silver setting is at the base of the chuti. On the underside of the headdress, at about the middle of the tail of the perak, a strip of metallic silver mesh, reinforced by stiff cotton textile, is affixed; there is a small silver hook at one end of the mesh strip and a small brass hook at the other end. (Image shows Ee70 a-b -Ee71.)