■10U1E8.1 SYMBOLIC USES OF WAMPUM. 241 



tioual permauency to tradition and bringing it one step further forward 

 in the direction of written records. Such records were, of course, 

 quite useless without the agency of an interpreter. Among tlie Iro- 

 quois, according to Morgan, one of the Onondaga sachems was made 

 hereditary "keeper of wampum," whose duty it was to be thoroughly 

 versed in its interpretation. But Icnowledgc of the contents of these 

 records was not confined to the keeper, or even to the sachems. At 

 a certain season each year the belts were taken from the treasure-house 

 and exposed to the whole tribe, while the history and import of each 

 was publicly recited. This custom is kept up to the present day. It is 

 recorded by Kuttenber that among the Mohicans a certain sachem had 

 charge of the bag of peace which contained the wampum belts and strings 

 used in establishing peace and friendshiji with the different nations. ' 



Aside from records wampum was used in the form of strings and 

 belts for a variety of purposes; some of them were probably mnemonic, 

 others only i)artially so, being based either upon its association with 

 the name of some chief or clan, or upon a semisacred character result- 

 ing from its important uses. It was employed in summoning councils, 

 and the messenger who journeyed from tribe to tribe found in it a 

 well recognized passport. When a council was called it was presented 

 bj' the delegates from the various tribes as their credentials; it was 

 used in the ceremony of opening and closing councils, as was al&o 

 the calumet; it assisted in solemnizing oaths and in absolving from 

 them ; white, it was a messenger of peace ; black, it threatened war, 

 and covered with clay, it expressed grief. " White wampum was the 

 Iroquois emblem of purity and faith, it was hung around the neck of 

 the white dog before it was burned ; it was used before the periodical 

 religious festivals for the confession of sins, no confession being re- 

 garded as sincere unless recorded with white wampum ; further than 

 this, it was the customary offering in condonation of murder, although 

 the purple was sometimes employed. Six strings was the value of a 

 life, or the quantity sent in condonation, for the wampum was rather 

 sent as a regretful confession of the crime, with a petition for forgive- 

 ness, than as the actual price of blood.'" We readily recognize the in- 

 fluence of the Christian missionary in a number of these symbolic uses 

 of wampum. 



The literature of wampum would fill a volume, but I forbear present- 

 ing more than will give an outline of the subject, confining myself to 

 such quotations as will serve to show clearly the extent and importance 

 of this ancient custom and its attendant practices. 



The method of handling the belts of wampum in the presence of cer- 

 emonial assemblies is extremely interesting, and cannot be better pre- 

 sented than in the words of eye-witnesses. 



'Ruttenber: Indian Tribes of the Hudson River, page 43. 



•Morgan, in Fifth Annual Report on the condition of the New York State Cabinet 

 •f Natural History, page 73. 

 16 E 



