240 ART IN SHELL OP THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



Sciences, Vol. II, Part I, p. 38 ; and Stephen Powers in Vol. 3, Contri- 

 butions to North American Ethnology, pp. 21, 24, 30. 



MNEMONIC USE OF BEADS. 



One of the most remarkable customs i)racticed l)y the American In- 

 dians is found in the mnemonic use of wampum. This custom had in 

 it a germ of great promise, one which must in time have becomea power- 

 ful agent in the evolution of art aud learning. It was a nucleus about 

 which all the elements of culture could arrange themselves. I shall 

 not at present undertake to divest tlie custom of adventitious features 

 such as have been introduced by coutact with European influence. 

 Yet there is no reason to fear that any of the important or essential 

 features have been derived from outside sources. It is not possible 

 from any known records to demonstrate the great antiquity of this 

 use of wampum. Lt does not seem probable, however, that a custom 

 so unicpie and so wide-spread could have grown up within the historic 

 I)eriod ; nor is it probable that a practice foreign to the genius of tradi- 

 tion-loving races could have become so well established and so dear to 

 their hearts in a few generations. 



Mnemonic records are known to have come iuto use among many na- 

 tions at a very early stage of culture. Picture writing as developed in 

 the north is but another form of mnemonic record, a fact, a thought, a 

 verse of a song being associated with an ideographic design, more or 

 less suggestive of the subject. The Peruvians had their quipus, in which 

 the record was made by associating things to be remembered with knots 

 made in cords of different colors, each combination having a fixed asso- 

 ciation. The Mexicans had gone further and had achieved a system of 

 picture writing that was very unique and curious, iu which a ])honetic 

 element had already made its appearance, while the Mayas could l)oast 

 the discovery of a true phonetic system with an alphabet of twenty- 

 seven sounds. 



The mnemonic use of wampum is one which, I imagine, might readily 

 develop from the practice of gift giving and the exchange of tokens of 

 friendship, such mementos being preserved for future reference as re- 

 minders of promises of assistance or protection. In time the use of such 

 mementos would develop iuto a system capable of recording affairs of 

 varied and comi)licated nature; jjarticular facts or features of treaties 

 would be assinged to particular objects, or portions of objects. With 

 this much accomplished, but one step was necessary to the attainment 

 of a hieroglyphic system — the permanent association of a single object 

 or sign with a particular idea. 



The wampum records of the Iroquois were generally in the form of 

 belts, the beads being strung or woven into i>atterns formed by the use 

 of different colors. By association simply they were made to record 

 history, laws, treaties, and speeches — a fact, a law, a stijiulation, or a 

 declaration being '-talked into" a particular part or pattern of the de- 

 sign with which it was ever afterwards associated, thus giving addi- 



