XXXll INTRODUCTION. 



was brought them by the traders, besides abundant imi- 

 tations in glass and porcelain. Strung into necklaces, or 

 wrought into collars, belts, and bracelets, it was the 

 favorite decoration of the Indian girls at festivals and 

 dances. It served also a graver purpose. No compact, 

 no speech, or clause of a speech, to the representative of 

 another nation, had any force, unless confirmed by the 

 delivery of a string or belt of wampum. ^ The belts, on 

 occasions of importance, were wrought into significant 

 devices, suggestive of the substance of the compact or 

 speech, and designed as aids to memory. To one or 

 more old men of the nation was assigned the honorable, 

 but very onerous, charge of keepers of the wampum, — in 

 other words, of the national records ; and it was for them 

 to remember and interpret the meaning of the belts. 

 The figures on wampum-belts were, for the most part, 

 simply mnemonic. So also were those carved on wooden 

 tablets, or painted on bark and skin, to preserve in mem- 

 ory the songs of war, hunting, or magic.^ The Hurons 

 had, however, in common with other tribes, a system of 

 rude pictures and arbitrary signs, by which they could 

 convey to each other, with tolerable precision, informa- 

 tion touching the ordinary subjects of Indian interest. 



Their dress was chiefly of skins, cured with smoke 

 after the well-known Indian mode. That of the women, 

 according to the Jesuits, was more modest than that " of 

 our most pious ladies of France." The young girls on 

 festal occasions must be excepted from this commenda- 

 tion, as they wore merely a kilt from the waist to the 



1 Beaver-skins and other valuable furs were sometimes, on such occa- 

 sions, used as a substitute. 



2 Engravings of many specimens of these figured songs are given in 

 t ne voluminous reports on the condition of the Indians, published by Gov- 

 ernment, under the editorship of Mr. Schoolcraft. The specimens are 

 chiefly Algonquin. 



