Do the Dzi bead have those designs or is that your imagination? I ask because some of them look similar to Anglo-Saxon runes. I have several Buddhist bead brackets, but as they are all from Japan they either have Sanskrit on them (usually in the Siddhaṃscript, which is interesting because as I understand it they don't use that script any longer in India and it only survives in Japan and China) or various sutras in Chinese.

Snow Crash... ahh, I haven't read that since it was first released. I remember being very fascinated by the idea of memes and word viruses as given in the book. Anyway, another nice painting!