A word of unknown origin and meaning, applied to colored and variegated glass beads of ancient manufacture, found buried in the ground in Africa; they closely resemble the glain neidyr or adder stone of the Britons.
1819. Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, 267. The variegated strata of the aggry beads are so firmly united and so imperceptibly blended, that the perfection seems superior to art.
1876. Fam. Herald, 9 Dec., 95. Aggry beads … are supposed to be of ancient Egyptian manufacture.
1882. J. E. Price, in Athenæum, 11 March, 321/1. When the Romans occupied the country [Britain], they brought with them many African slaves who wore necklaces with aggri beads attached.
