1897.] PRINCE — THE PASSAMAQUODDY WAMPUM RECORDS. 481 



to burn a mark or rude figure on a stick suggestive of a sentence or 

 idea. Brinton adds:^ '' In later days, instead of burning the marks 

 upon the stick, they were painted, the colors as well as the figures 

 having certain conventional meanings. The sticks are described 

 as about six inches in length, slender, although varying iii shape, 

 and tied up in bundles." Among the more cultured tribes the sticks 

 were eventually replaced by wooden tablets, on which the symbols 

 were engraved with a sharp instrument, such as a flint or knife. The 

 Passamaquoddies appear never to have advanced beyond the use of 

 wampum strings as mnemonic aids. 



I obtained the Wampum Records at Bar Harbor, Me., in 1887, 

 from a Passamaquoddy Indian, Mr. Louis Mitchell, who was at 

 that time Indian member of the Maine Legislature.'^ The MSS. 

 which he sent me contained both the Indian text and a translation 

 into Indian-English, which I have rearranged in an idiom I trust 

 somewhat more intelligible to the general reader. Owing to the 

 fact that the Indian text in Mitchell's MSS. is written syllabi- 

 cally, without any attempt at a division into words, much less 

 into sentences or paragraphs, the difficulty of editing the same with 

 even approximate correctness has been very great. I have followed 

 almost exactly Mr. Mitchell's extremely variable orthography, 

 although tempted in many cases to depart from it, as he has written 

 what is evidently the same sound sometimes in as many as three dif- 

 ferent ways. Thus, he was clearly unable to distinguish between 

 j and ch, a, it and e, or 00 and ?/, and he uses k-c, kw-qic, b-p, etc., 

 apparently indiscriminately. I plead guilty in advance, therefore, 

 to any errors which may occur in the original text, trusting that 

 the interesting character and historial value of the records them- 

 selves will justify their publication in the state in which I offer 

 them. 



^/. ^., p. 59- 



2 The Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes send a representative to the Maine 

 Legislature who is permitted to speak only on matters connected with the affairs of 

 the Indian reservations. 



