906 



WAMPUM 



[b. a. e. 



currency." His article is valuable and 

 interesting for giving the value of the dif- 

 ferent kinds and grades of wampum in 

 stivers and guilders at the periods men- 

 tioned. 



Williams (op. cit.), speaking of the po- 

 quauhock or quahaug, called hens by the 

 English, or the hard round clam, says 

 that the Indians "break out of the shell 

 about half an inch of a black part of it, 

 of which they make their suckmihock, or 

 black money," and that they manufac- 

 ture from the stem or stock of the me- 

 teauhock, or periwinkle, their "wompam 

 or white money," of half the value of 

 the suckdwhock or black money or shell 

 beads. In his lexicon Williams gives the 

 words sawhdog and sawhosaddck as the 

 native tenms for ' loose beads, ' enomphosa- 

 chick as that for 'strung ones,' and mdche- 

 quoce as 'a girdle, or belt,' curiously 

 made from one to five or more inches in 

 width of these shell beads. Such a belt, 

 he tells us, was worth sometimes more 

 than £10 ster- 

 ling, and was 

 worn either as 

 a girdle or as 

 a scarf or sash 

 around the 

 shoulders or 

 breasts, hence 

 the com m o n 

 name of V)elt 

 for this article. 

 Strings were al- 

 so worn as orna- 

 ments around 

 the necks of 

 w omen and 

 children. Wil- 

 liams quaintly 



adds: "Princes make rich caps and 

 aprons (or small breeches) of these beads, 

 thus curiously strung into mauy forms 

 and figures: their black and white finely 

 mixed together." As to their means of 

 manufacture he says also that before the 

 Indians obtained awl blades from Euro- 

 peans they "made shift to bore this their 

 shell money with stone," and that the 

 work of smoothing the beads "they doe 

 on stones" and other things. 



Lawson (Hist. Car., 315-316, 1714) 

 writes that the Indians of Carolina had 

 two different kinds of shell money, called 

 peak and ronoak, chiefly the former kind, 

 which at New York went by the name of 

 wampum, and was used as current money. 

 He believed that peak was used on the 

 continent "as far as the bay of Mexico." 

 The peak, he says, was called " porcelan" 

 by many writers, and was made in great 

 quantities in New York and " with us in 

 some measure. " It was made from shells 

 found on the coast, very large and hard, 

 so that it was difficult to cut them; that 



some English smiths attempted " to drill 

 this sort of shell money" for profit, but 

 found the task too hard, and saw that 

 nothing could be gained, for the ' ' drilling 

 was the most difficult part of the work 

 to the Englishmen, which the Indians 

 manage with a nail stuck in a cane or 

 reed, which was rolled by them on their 

 thighs with the right hand and the bit of 

 shell was held in the left, so in time they 

 drill a hole quite through it, which is a 

 tedious work; but especially in making 

 their ronoak, four of which will scarce 

 make one length of their wampum. ' ' He 

 does not say how the drilling was done 

 before the Indians had nails. For this 

 shell money "skins, furs, slaves, and 

 whatever the Indians possessed might be 

 bought; by it they might be enticed to do 

 anything — to part with anything except 

 their children for slaves; by its means 

 murders and other crimes were adjusted 

 and settled." Beverley (Hist. Va., bk. 

 Ill, 58, 1705) savs that the Indians of the 

 Virginia and 

 Carolinalittoral 

 had peak and 

 roenoke; that 

 the pea^ was of 

 two colors, dark 

 purple and 

 white; that 

 they (presum- 

 ably the purple 

 and the white) 

 were alike in 

 size and figure, 

 being made of 

 different por- 

 tions of the 

 same shell (evi- 

 dently the po- 

 (juauhock) ; they were polished as smooth 

 as glass, and were strung through holes 

 drilled through their centers; the purple 

 or dark-colored beads were more valu- 

 able than the white, bringing among 

 the Indian traders 18 pence per yard, 

 while the white brought only 9 pence; 

 and that these Indians made of these 

 shell beads pipes (probably tubular ob- 

 jects), 2 or 3 in. long and "thicker 

 than ordinary, which are much more 

 valuable;" that they also made runtees 

 of the same shell, grinding them smooth 

 as the beads of the peak, "the strung 

 beads," and that these runtees were 

 either large like an oval bead, drilled 

 through the length of the oval, or they 

 were flat and circular, nearly an inch 

 in width and ^ in. thick, and were drilled 

 edgewise. The peak, the runtees, and the 

 "pipes," he continues, were used for cor- 

 onets, bracelets, belts, or else the shell 

 beads were made into long strings to hang 

 down before the breast, to lace up their 

 garments, or to adorn their tomahawks 



AN COUNCIL. 



(after Lafitau) 



