228 
PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
163.—Wampum strings. 
Via. 
manner in which the prisoners were secured at night, 
pegged and tied in the style called spread-eagle. 
Rev. Richard Taylor (a) notes that the Maori had 
neither the quipus nor wampum, but only a board 
shaped like a saw, which was called “he rakau 
wakapa-paranga,” or genealogical board. It was, 
in fact, a tally, having a notch for each name, and a 
blank space to denote where the male line failed 
and was succeeded by that of the female; youths 
were taught their genealogies by repeating the 
names of each ancestor to whom the notches referred. 
It is supposed that the use by bakers of notched 
sticks or tallies, as they are called, still exists in 
some civilized regions, and there is an interesting 
history connected with the same wooden tallies, 
which until lately were used in the accounts of the 
exchequer of Great Britain. They also appear more 
recently and in a different use as the Khe-mou cir- 
culated by Tartar chiefs to designate the number of 
men and horses required to be furnished by each 
cap. 
SeyCun MON mss 
WAMPUM. 
Prof. Robert E. C. Stearns (a) says that wampum 
consisted of beads of two principal colors having a 
cylindrical form, a quarter of an inch, more or less, 
in length, the diameter or thickness being usually 
about half the length. The color of the wampum 
determined its value. Theterm wampum, wampon, 
or wampom, and wampum-peege was apparently ap- 
plied to these beads when strung or otherwise con- 
nected, fastened, or woven together. The illustra- 
tion given by him is now reproduced as Fig. 163. 
In the Jesuit Relations, 1656, p. 3, the first pre- 
sent of an Iroquois chief to Jesuit missionaries at a 
council is described. This was a great figure of the 
sun, made of 6,000 beads of wampum, which ex- 
plained to them that the darkness shall not influence 
theminthe councils and the sun shall enlighten them 
even in the depth of night. 
Among the Iroquoian and Algonquian tribes wam- 
pum belts were generally used to record treaties. 
Mr. John Long (a) describes one of them: 
The wampum belts given to Sir William Johnson, of im- 
mortal Indian memory, were in several rows, black on each 
side and white in the middle; the white being placed in the 
center was to express peace and that the path between them 
was fair and open. In the center of the belt was a figure of 
adiamond made of white wampum, which the Indians call the 
council fire. 
