Yes Carl, you're right.The history about these beads, as reported by Joanne Eicher, is funny. One of these beads, locally called "ila" was hang at the cradle of a baby, Seleye Fulbara. The bead went lost in the den of a crab, and the baby should has been given on adoption. But the very day the baby should change family, the crab throw the "ila" out of his den, and the baby could stay with his parents. When adult, he became very rich, and was called Jack Rich or Jackreece; he wanted to buy a lot of expensive "ila" in the very far town where they were made.Indeed he come back with a lot of "ila", and from time to time he used to show his richness broking some of them with his feet. Among Kalabari of his region, "ila" beads were deserved just to people belonging to Jackreece lineage. The photo shows a couple of "ila", Venetian blown beads, in the same mount as seen in the hat of the Kalabari woman of the portrait: I got them in Ghana a couple of years ago, but they can easily come from Nigeria.

Giorgio