BEAD, a small globule or ball used in necklaces, and made of different materials, as pearl, steel, garnet, coral, diamond, amber, glass, rook-crystal, and seeds. The Roman Catholics make great use of beads in rehearsing their Ave-liarias and Pater-nosters, and a similar custom obtains among the religious orders of the East. A string of such beads is called a rosary. Glass.beads were used by the Spaniards to barter with the natives of South America for gold when they first established themselves on that continent, and to this day they are a favourite article of traffic with all savage nations. Beads of glass are sent in enormous quantities to Zanzibar, and to all other ports from which a trade with the interior of Africa is carried on, as they form almost the only convenient medium of exchange with the native tribes. The qualities and varieties recognized in the Zanzibar market are said to number more than 400, and the trade there is almost entirely in the hands of the Banyans. Large quantities are also sent to India, the Eastern Archipelago, and the Polynesian Islands ; and in the more primitive parts of Europe beads are in considerable demand. Under the name of bugles a very great quantity of small, mostly cylindrical, beads are used in lace-making, and for the ornamentation of ladies' dresses, the demand in this form fluctuating greatly according to the demands of fashion. Venice is the principal centre of the manufacture of glass beads of all kinds. The exports therefrom during the ten years ending with 1871 amounted to 313,201 quintals, of the value of 61,240,296 Italian lire. In the manufacture of ordinary beads, as conducted at Venice, rods or canes of glass of the colour and quality desired first are drawn out, either pierced or unpierced. The rods may either be of transparent glass, or of opaque coloured enamel glass (smaiti), or may have complex patterns produced by the twisting of threads of coloured glass through a transparent body, characteristic of Venetian glass. From these rods rounded beads are pinched off, and the more costly kinds, made in imitation of precious stones, &c.,are cut and faceted. Imitation pearls, the making of which forms an important part of the bead industry, are blown by the blowpipe from a milky-white glass. The pearly lustre is communicated by the infiltration of a substance obtained from the scales of the bleak Leueiscus albnrnvs. The more costly imitation pearls receive several coats of the pearly substance, and have weight and solidity added by filling up the interior of the pearl with wax. Gold, silver, and various coloured lustres are frequently substituted for the pearly substance in the manufacture of blown beads.