WAMPUM. XXxi 



skill. They spun twine from hemp, by the primitive 

 process of rolling it on their thighs ; and of this twine 

 they made nets. They extracted oil from fish and from 

 the seeds of the sunflower, — the latter, apparently, only 

 for the purposes of the toilet. They pounded their maize 

 in huge mortars of wood, hollowed by alternate burnings 

 and scrapings. Their stone axes, spear and arrow heads, 

 and bone fish-hooks, were fast giving place to the iron of 

 the French; but they had not laid aside their shields 

 of raw bison-hide, or of wood overlaid with plaited and 

 twisted thongs of skin. They still used, too, their primi- 

 tive breastplates and greaves of twigs interwoven with 

 cordage. 1 The masterpiece of Huron handiwork, how- 

 ever, was the birch canoe, in the construction of which 

 the Algonquins were no less skilful. The Iroquois, in 

 the absence of the birch, were forced to use the bark of 

 the elm, which was greatly inferior both in lightness and 

 strength. Of pipes, than which nothing was more im- 

 portant in their eyes, the Hurons made a great variety, 

 some of baked clay, others of various kinds of stone, 

 carved by the men, during their long periods of monoto- 

 nous leisure, often with great skill and ingenuity. But 

 their most mysterious fabric was wampum. This was 

 at once their currency, their ornament, their pen, ink, 

 and parchment ; and its use was by no means confined 

 to tribes of the Iroquois stock. It consisted of elongated 

 beads, white and purple, made from the inner part of 

 certain shells. It is not easy to conceive how, with their 

 rude implements, the Indians contrived to shape and 

 perforate this intractable material. The art soon fell 

 into disuse, however ; for wampum better than their own 



1 Some of the northern tribes of California, at the present day, wear 

 a sort of breastplate " composed of thin parallel battens of very tough 

 wood, woven together with a small cord." 



