Tooker] ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE HURON 21 



laces three or four fingers wide and about JU/^ feet in circumference. 

 The women wore as many of them on their necks as their means and 

 wealth allowed (S 144). Some wampum was strung "like our 

 rosaries" and fastened to their ears so tliat they hung down. Chains 

 made of wampum as large as walnuts were fastened to both hips 

 and arranged in front in a slant over their thighs or the girdles they 

 wore. Some women wore bracelets on their arms, and great circular 

 (and square) plates in front over the stomach and others behind hang- 

 ing from their hair plaits (S 144 ; C 134) . The plates which hung on 

 the back were a foot square and covered with wampum (C 134^135). 

 The girls appeared at dances and feasts loaded with wampum and 

 adorned with the best and most costly things they possessed (C 134- 

 135, 164) . Some women also had belts and other finely made of por- 

 cupine quills dyed red and neatly interwoven (S 144) . There was no 

 lack of feathers and paint (S 144-145) . 



The wampum {onocoirota) was made from the ribs of large sea- 

 shells like periwinkles, called vignols. These were cut into a thousand 

 pieces, then polished on sandstone; a hole was pierced in them, and 

 necklaces and bracelets made of them. This took gTeat trouble and 

 labor because of the hardness of these ribs (S 146) .^"^ 



Both men and women painted themselves (S 144-145). Most 

 adorned their faces in black and red (JR 15: 155; 38: 249; C 133) 

 or in various colors ( JR 38 : 249) . They decorated their bodies as well 

 as their faces with black, green, red, and violet paints, and in many 

 other ways. Others, primarily those of the Tobacco Nation, had their 

 bodies and faces tattooed with representations of snakes, lizards, and 

 squirrels. A few women were also tattooed (S 145). The black 

 usually was obtained from the bottom of pots ; the other colors from 

 various earths or from certain roots which yielded a fine scarlet color 

 ( JR 38 : 251) . These colors were mixed with sunflower seed oil, bear's 

 fat, or other animal fats (C 133, cf. JR 38: 251). They also painted 

 pictures of men, animals, birds, and other objects on stones, wood, 

 and similar materials as well as on their bodies. These pictures served 

 simply as ornament for their pipes and for the fronts of their houses 

 (S 98). 2^ 



Both men and women oiled their hair (S 141r-145) with oil made 

 from the seed of sunflowers (C 50). The women and girls always 



29 Although the use of wampum was an aboriginal culture trait, it increased In avail- 

 ability and use after Europeans came to the continent because European metal tools made 

 the manufacture of wampum easier and because trade increased and beaver skins were 

 exchanged for wampum (Beauchamp 1898: 3-4; 1901 b: 329, 342, 354). There is some 

 evidence that the wampum "collars" of the Huron were not the wampum "belts" of the 

 Iroquois (Beauchamp 1901 b: 342-343, 384-387). 



" The pictures painted on the houses were probably clan symbols (Barbeau 1917 : 402 n. ; 

 Beauchamp 1905 : 108-109, 132 ; Fenton 1951 b : 51 ; Goldenweiser 1913 : 4G7 ; Morgan 

 1881: 64; 1901(1) : 309). Some face painting also may have indicated clan affiliation: 

 Powell (1881 : 64) says that each Wyandot clan had Its distinctive method of painting 

 the face. 



