488 MYTHS OF TilE CHEKOKEK [eth.ans.19 



the ilifferont tribes to see by. I have juit mie chunk tnwanl tlie risiiij; sun, one 

 toward the nortli, and one toward the south. This fire is not to be extingui.«hed so 

 long as time lasts. I shall stick up a stick close by this fire, in order that it may 

 frequently be stirred, and raise a light for the rising generation to see by: if any one 

 should turn in the dark, you must catch him by the hand, and lead him to the 

 light, so that he can see that he was wrong. 



"I have made you a fire-light, I have stripped some white hickory bark and set it 

 up against the tree, in order that when you wish to remove this fire, you can take 

 it anil put it on the bark; when you kindle this fire it will be seen rising up toward 

 the heavens. I will see it and know it; I am your oldest brother. The messenger 

 of peace further said, I have prepared white Ijenches for you, and leaned the white 

 pipe against them, and when you eat you shall have but one dish and one spoon. 

 We have done everything that was good, but our warriors still hold their tomahawks 

 in their hands, as if they wished to fight each other. We will now take their toma- 

 hawks from them and bury them; we must bury them deep under the earth where 

 there is water; and there must be winds, which we wish to blow them so far that 

 our warriors may never see them again. 



"The messenger further said, Where there is bl(jc_>d spilt I will wipe it up clean — 

 wherever bones have lieen scattered, I have taken them and buried them, and co\-- 

 ered them with white hickory l:)ark and a white cloth — there must be no more blood 

 S]iilt ; our warriors must not recollect it any more. Our warriors said that the Cheni- 

 kees were working for the rising generation by themselves; we must take hold and 

 help them. 



"The messengers then said that you Cherokees are placed now under the centre 

 of the sun; this talk I leave with you for the different tribes, and when you talk it, 

 our voice shall be loud enough to be heard over this island. This is all 1 have 

 to say.'" 



Wamptim — The celeljrated wampum was a species of bead cut from the shell of the 

 clam, conch, or other shell-bearing mollusk of the coast or the larger streams. The 

 common name is derived from an Algonquian word signifying irliite, and was properly 

 applied only to one variety, the generic term varying with the tribe. The l^eads were 

 rather cylindrical than globular, and were of two colors, white and purple or dark. 

 They were rated at definite values. The wampum was manufactured by the coast 

 tribes, being traded by them to those of the interior, and was largely used every- 

 where east of the Mississippi for necklaces, collars, belts, and other purposes of per- 

 sonal adornment, as well as in connection with the noted wampum belts, by means 

 of which the memory of treaties and tribal traditions was handed down. These 

 belts were woven with various designs in wampum, either pictographic or syml;)olic, 

 the meaning of which was preserved and explaineil on public occasions by an officer 

 appointed to that duty. In ancient times no treaty or covenant was considered bind- 

 ing, and no tribal embassy was recognized as official, without the delivery of a wam- 

 j)um belt as a guaranty and memorial. The colonial documents are full of references 

 to this custom. Up to the end of the last century the Cherokee still tendered such 

 belts in their treaties with the Government, and one was delivered in the same man- 

 ner so late as the treaty of Prairie des Chiens in 1825. The Iroquois still preserve 

 several ancient belts, of which a good idea is afforded by the illustration and accom- 

 panying description (figure 2, page .354). On account of the high estimation in 

 which these shell beads were held they were frequently used in the East as a 

 standard of exchange, as eagle feathers were in the West, and among the Cherokee 

 the same word, atela, is used alike for bead and for money. On the Pacific coast, 



•J. M. Stanley, Portraits o£ North American Indians, with sketches of scenery, etc., painted by 

 J. M. Stanley, deposited with the Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 

 December. 1852: pp. l.S-'22. The Stanley account was not seen by the present author until after the 

 WafYorii trat'lition \vas in jirnnfs. 



