These reddish brown beads are called "Abo" by the traders of Chad and Niger. They are stone beads made from aluminum ore; the reddish color comes from traces of iron. Women wore Abo beads in girdles – sometimes as many as nine strings. In the 1940s one Abo string was worth about 1 shilling 6 pence sterling – today, that would amount to about 3 pound sterling, or 6 dollars.