THE ORIGIN OF PRIMITIVE MONEY. 297 



parts of India and of Africa. It differed from them, in fact, as coined 

 money differs from bullion. Wampum was a manufactured article. 

 The great labor required to produce it was, indeed, the main element 

 in its value. It was used in two forms. The least common, but ap- 

 parently the earliest form, was that of disks, varying in size from that 

 of an English sixpence, or rather, perhaps, from that of an American 

 half-dime, to that of an English shilling, but somewhat thicker than 

 these coins. One writer compares them, for size and thickness, to a 

 peppermint-lozenge. These disks were perforated through the center, 

 and commonly threaded upon a string. The other and more usual 

 kind was of cylindrical shape, resembling the segment of a clay pipe- 

 stem. These smaller beads had a diameter of about the eighth of an 

 inch, and a length about twice or three times as great. Like the oth- 

 ers, they were perforated, and usually strung upon a deer's sinew or a 

 string of some description. 



These disks, or cylinders, were of two colors, white and dark-pur- 

 ple, the latter generally styled black. They were made from sea- 

 shells of several descriptions. The white beads were usually derived 

 from various species of periwinkles or conchs. The purple sort were 

 made chiefly from the large round clam, common on the Atlantic 

 coast, and known by the Indian name of quahaiig, and in science as 

 Venus mercenaria. This moUusk has near the anterior end of the 

 otherwise white inside of each valve a deep purple or brownish-black 

 scar, indicating the point of muscular attachment, and known to fish- 

 ermen as the " eye." This dark spot was broken out by the Indians 

 to form their "black wampum," which, from its greater rarity, was 

 always rated at a higher value than the white beads. Such, in brief, 

 is the account given by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, in his excellent article on 

 "Wampum and its History," in the " American Naturalist" for May, 

 1883. The Indians who lived along the sea-coast were the principal 

 manufacturers, and drove a brisk trade in this article with the tribes 

 of the interior. Long Island, in particular, was a noted seat of this 

 industry. It was the Potosi or California of the Northern Indians, 

 and bore among them the name of Seawanhake, or " Land of Wam- 

 pum." In traffic the money was computed sometimes by the number 

 of beads, and sometimes by the length of the string. 



The word icampwn is of Algonkin origin. Its application to this 

 money originated in a misconception of the early colonists. Properly 

 it means simply " white." Peage or peake, we are told, was the name 

 of the shell-beads, at least when strung. When loose, the term seican 

 (or, as pronounced by the Dutch colonists, zeewand) was applied to 

 them. This term is said to mean simply " scattered," or " loose." 

 A string of white beads, the most common currency, was called by the 

 Indians loampum-peah., or " white strung-beads." The first portion of 

 the compound word was caught by the settlers, and hence all money- 

 beads became known among them as " wampum." 



