THE ORIGIN OF PRIMITIVE MONEY. 301 



pieces rate at one dollar apiece — ten dollars a string ; tlie smaller in 

 proportion, or less, if they are not pretty. Being susceptible of a liigh 

 polish, this money forms a beautiful ornament, and is worn for neck- 

 laces on gala-days. But as money it is rather too large and cumbei-- 

 some, and the Indians generally seek to exchange it for the less brill- 

 iant and more useful hCiiook. The ullo may be considered rather as 

 jevrelry. The peculiar shape given to this ullo, ov "gold-money," is 

 deserving of notice, as will be seen hereafter. 



Of the shell-money in general Mr. Powers remarks that " immense 

 quantities of it were formerly in circulation among the Califoi-nian In- 

 dians, and the manufacture of it was large and constant, to I'eplace the 

 continual wastage which was caused by the sacrifice of so much upon 

 the death of wealthy men, and by the propitiatory sacrifices performed 

 by many tribes, especially those of the Coast Range." This use of 

 shell-money in saci'ifices and in funeral ceremonies is precisely the 

 same that is made of the Eastern wampum. Like the shape of the 

 oblong ullo money, this is a fact which will be found significant as we 

 proceed. Mr. Powers continues : " From my own observations, which 

 have not been limited, and from the statements of pioneers and the 

 Indians themselves, I hesitate little to express the belief that every 

 Indian in the State, in early days, possessed an average of at least one 

 hundred dollars' worth of shell-money. This," adds the author, with 

 a commercial precision which is both commendable and amusing, 

 " would represent the value of about two women (though the Nishi- 

 nams never actually bought their wives), or two grizzly-bear skins, or 

 twenty-five cinnamon-bear skins, or about three average ponies. This 

 may be considered a fair statement of the diffusion of wealth among 

 them in their primitive condition," 



Thus it will be seen that shell-money of this peculiar chai*acter was 

 in use over a wide space of North America, stretching from the Atlan- 

 tic coast to the Pacific. The line along which it is found in the great- 

 est abundance extends from New York and the Ohio Valley to South- 

 ern California in a direction somewhat south of west. If we continue 

 this line in the same direction a little more than half-way across the 

 Pacific, we arrive at the widely extended range of small islands, or 

 congeries of island-groups, known in modern geography by the name 

 of Micronesia. It fills a great part of the western half of the ocean 

 north of the equator, and comprises the Radack and Ralick chains, the 

 Kingsmill and Marshall groups, the Marian (or Ladrone) and Caroline 

 Islands, the Pelews, Panape, Eap, and many smaller clusters and sin- 

 gle islets. The well-known Loo-Choo islands form the stepping-stones, 

 as it were, which lead from this vast archipelago to China and Japan. 

 The natives of Micronesia are in about the same social stage as that 

 which had been attained by the North American Indians when they 

 were first known to the whites. In charactei*, usages, and language 

 they resemble to a certain extent the natives of the southern and east- 



