HOLMES.) WAMPUM IN TREATIES. 245 



wampum was exhausted ; and they supplied the rest with packages of 

 deerskin, in return for wliich they were given trinkets of small value, 

 so that transactions between the Europeans and them have become a 

 sort of trade. 



"Althougli all the savage nations of America make various kinds of 

 ornainents of shells, I believe that it is only those ot North America 

 who employ them in transactions. I cannot even aflfirui that all of 

 these do.'" 



A very complete account of wampum is given by Loskiel, from whose 

 work the following extract is made : 



" Four or six strings joined in one breadth, and fastened to each other 

 with fine thread, make a belt of irampom, being about three or four 

 inches wide, and three feet long, containing, perhaps, four, eight, or 

 twelve fathom of wampom, in i)roportion to its required length nnd 

 breadth. This is determined by the importance of the subject which 

 these belts are intended either to explain or confirm, or by the dignity 

 of the persons to whom they are to be delivered. Everything of moment 

 transacted at solemn councils, either between the Indians themselves 

 or with Europeans, is ratified and made valid by strings and belts of 

 wampom. Formerly, they used to give sanction to their treaties by de- 

 livering a wing of some large bird ; and this custom still prevails among 

 the more western nations, in transacting business with the Delawares. 

 But the Uelawares Ihemselves, the Iroquois, and the nations in league 

 with them, are now sufficiently ]>rovided with handsome and well- 

 wrought strings and belts of wampom. Upon the delivery of a string, 

 a long speech may be made and much said upon the subject under con- 

 sideration, hut when a belt is given few words are spolcen ; but they must 

 be words of great importance, frequently requiring an explanation. 

 Whenever the speaker has pronounced some important sentence, he de- 

 livers a string of wampom, adding, ' 1 give this string of wampom as a 

 confirmation of what I have spoken'; but the chief subject of his dis- 

 course he confirms witli a belt. The answers given to a speech thusde- 

 livered must also be confirmed by strings and belts of wampom, of the 

 same size and number as those received. Neither the colour nor the 

 otiier qualities of wampom are a matter of indiflerence, but have an 

 immediate reference to those tilings which they are meant to confirm. 

 The brown or deep violet, called black by the Indians, always means 

 something of severe or doubtful import ; but the white is the colour of 

 peace. Thus, if a string or belt of wampom is intended to confirm a 

 warning against evil, or an earnest reproof, it is delivered in black. 

 When a nation is called upon to go to war, or war declared against it, 

 the belt is blai;k, or marked witli red, called by tliem, the colour of blood, 

 having in the middle the figure of an hatchet in white wampom. * * » 

 They refer to them as public records, carefully preserving them in a 

 chest made lor that iiurjyose. At certain seasons they meet to study 

 their meaning, and to renew the ideas of which they were an emblem 



' Latitau : Moeiirs dea Sauvages Aiueriqiiains, 1724, torn. II, pp. 50;i-'3 and 506-'7, 



