HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



147 



England coast are found these old flint awls of pre- 

 historic design, which may have been spun in some 

 cases by a small bow, such as jewellers employ at 

 present. In Virginia, Beverly found that both sorts 

 of peak were " in size and figure alike, and resembling 

 the English Buglas, but not so transparent nor so 

 brittle. They are wrought as smooth as glass, being 

 one-third of an inch long, and about a quarter in 

 diameter, strung by a hole drilled through the centre. " 

 Lawson describes the drilling " which the Indians 

 manage, by a nail stuck in a cane or reed. Thus 

 they roll it continually on their thigh with their right 

 hand, holding the bit of shell with their left ; so in 

 time they drill a hole quite through it, which is 

 very tedious work, but especially in making their 

 Ronoak." 



Brickell (1737) is worth reading on this point also. 

 The coinage, so to speak, of this shell-money was, 

 therefore, a work of patient labor, and there was no 

 fear of increasing the supply beyond the demands of 

 trade by the worth of one deer-skin, since a savage 

 would rarely make a single bead beyond what sufficed 

 for his immediate necessities. It was a true medium 

 of exchange — real currency. All the early accounts 

 speak of it as " riches," and " money," and " current 

 specie." "This," says Lawson, "is the money with 

 which you may buy skins, furs, slaves, or anything 

 the Indians 'have ; it being the mammon (as our 

 money is to us) that entices and persuades them to 

 do anything, and part with everything they possess, 

 except their children for slaves. As for their wives, 

 they are often sold, and their daughters violated for 

 it. With this they buy off murders ; and whatsoever 

 a man can do that is ill, this Wampum will quit him 

 of, and make him, in their opinion, good and virtuous, 

 though never so black before." 



The Delawares in fact had a tribal treasury of 

 wampum, out of which were paid the expenses of the 

 public affairs. At certain feasts a great quantity of 

 it was thrown upon the ground to be scrambled for 

 by- the youngsters, carnival fashion. Hired servants 

 at these feasts, or anywhere else, were paid in 

 wampum. 



It followed, as a matter of course, that the shrewd 

 first traders who came to New York and New 

 Jersey should adopt this currency which all the 

 natives were accustomed to. Receiving it as pay for 

 their merchandise, they used it to buy peltries of the 

 Indians. Thus wampum quickly became a standard 

 of values, the currency of the colonists to a great 

 extent in their transactions with each other, and 

 even a legal tender. 



Though the beads were often used separately, the 

 ordinary and approved manner was to string them 

 upon the sinews of animals, or upon cards which 

 might or might not be woven into plaits about as 

 broad as the hand, called wampum belts. The length 

 of these strings varied, but in the north about six 

 feet was found the usual quantity computed by the 



Indians, and hence the fathom became the unit 



of trade. In the Carolinas, according to Lawson, 



" the strings were measured in cubits, as much in 



length as will reach from the elbow to the little 



finger." The Indians themselves Lwere particular 



as to quality and size of the beads, upon the 



elegance of its finish (speaking scientifically the 



amount of labour and time it represented) depended 



its value. " When these beads are worn out," says 



Lindstrom, an engineer in New Jersey, in 1640, "so 



that they cannot be strung neatly and even on the 



thread, they no longer considered them as good. 



Their way of trying them is to rub the whole thread 



full on their noses : if they find it full and even, like 



glass beads, then they are considered good, otherwise 



they break and throw them away. Their manner of 



measuring their strings is by the length of their 



thumbs ; from the end of the first joint makes six 



beads." 



{To be continued.') 



STUDIES OF COMMON PLANTS. 



No. VII. — Celandine {Chelidonium majus). 



By E. A. Swan, B.A. 



THIS plant, which of course will not be con- 

 founded with the lesser celandine, Ranunculus 

 Jzcaria, has many curious characteristics, not the least 

 of which is the leaf ; exhibiting, as it does, most 

 clearly a transition state. 



In Fig. 75 I have taken at random a leaf-stem 

 containing five leayes, represented about half the 

 natural size, when full grown, and showing the 

 peculiar venation. I must state, at the outset, that 

 the leaf-stem is flat on the upper, and convex on the 

 lower, surface; in fact, it really constitutes the midrib 

 of what, at one evolutionary period, was, or may 

 become, a perfect leaf, but which is now, in the 

 specimen selected, subdivided into five leaves and 

 sometimes more. Indeed the stems, in their infancy, 

 often have a dozen or more leaves on them ; but, as 

 a rule, only the five at the end of the stem arrive at 

 any maturity, the others remaining, if at all, in a 

 merely rudimentary condition. Fig. 76 is an outline 

 drawing of a youthful leaf-stem about half the 

 natural size. The midrib, is, in each instance, 

 drawn with a dark line to distinguish it. On either 

 side can be seeri what I take to be the remains of 

 the original leaf, and they broaden out at the bases 

 of the smaller leaves. Often, as will be seen by 

 examination, such broadening out is very irregular, 

 and sometimes it and the side leaves are quite fan- 

 tastic in shape ; but, in the first specimen I have 

 chosen, the irregularity is only particularly noticeable 

 in the base of one of the lower leaves, where, on one 

 side, there is a well-marked irregularity, besides an 

 accessory small leaf. Even a cursory glance leads 



H 2 



