holmes! manufacture OF WAMPUM BELTS. 249 



taste have been sliown. The Uarge flgared varieties were intricate iu 

 design and extremely pleasing in color. Belts of wampuin beads were 

 probably used simply as a part of the costume long before they became 

 the vehicles of tradition, and beads were doubtless used in other parts 

 of the costume in a simdar manner. It is said that in New England 

 they were made by the women ; in later tiuies it is probable that the 

 whites engaged to some extent in their manufacture. 



Mr. Morgan gives such a good account of the details of belt making 

 that I beg leave to quote him in full : 



"In making a belt no particular pattern was followed; sometimes 

 they are of the width of three fingers and three feet long, in other iu- 

 stances as wide as the hand and over three feet in length ; sometimes 

 they are all of one color, in others variegated, and in .still others woven 

 witii the figures of men to symbolize, by their attitudes, the objects or 

 events they were designed to commemorate. The most common width 

 was three fingers, or the width of seven beads, the length ranging from 

 two to six feet. In belt making, which is a simple process, eight 

 strands or cords of bark thread are first twisted, from filaments of slip- 

 pery elm, of the requisite length and size ; after which they are passed 

 through a strip of deer-skin to separate them at equal distances from 

 each other in parallel lines. A piece of splint is then sprung in the 

 form (.f a bow, to which each end of the several strings is secured, and by 

 which all of them are held in tension, like warp threads in a weaving 

 machine. Seven beads, these making the intended width of the belt, 

 are then run upon a thread by means of a needle, and are passed under 

 the cords at right angles, so as to bring one bead lengthwise between 

 each cord and the one next in position. The thread is then passed back 

 again along the upper side of the cords and again through each of the 

 beads ; so that each bead is held firmly in its place by means of two 

 threads, one passing under aiid one above the cords. This process is 

 continued until the belt reaches its intended length, when the ends of 

 the cords are tied, the end of the belt covered and afterward trimmed 

 with ribbons. In ancient times both the cords and the thread were of 

 sinew." ' 



In another place Mr. Morgan states that belts were also made by cov- 

 ering one side of a deer-skiubelt with beads, ])robably by sewing them 

 on f a method which is everywhere common in the use of glass beads 

 in modern work, but is not noticed in any of the mnemonic belts now 

 extant. It is a remarkable as well as a lamentable fact that none ot 

 the great collections of the country can boast the possession of a wam- 

 pum belt. Considering their importance in our early history, and the 

 great numbers that at one time must have been in existence, this is 

 rather extraordinary. I have taken considerable pains to collect accu- 

 rate representations of a number of examples of the ancient belts for 



'Morgan, iu Fifth Animal Report on the Condition of the New York State Cabinet 

 of Natural History, ISM, p. 72. 

 'Morgau: League of the Iroquois, p. 387. 



