TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 911 



were u>ed by the builders of those mounds in the same manner and to the same 

 extent as by the modern Indians. 



West of the Rocky Mountains the shell-money was in use among: the Indians 

 down almost to our own times. It was made chiefly in the form of disks, which 

 ■were perforated and strung on strings. In their traffic these w r ere rated sometimes 

 by the number of beads, and sometimes by the length of the string. There was a 

 larger kind, made in oblong strips, with two holes at one end for stringing them. 

 The shell-money was much used by the Oalifornians in their funeral ceremonies 

 and their sacrifices. 



Continuing in a westerly course, we come, in the Northern Pacific, to the 

 island groups of Micronesia. In these groups the shell-money is found in use, very 

 much as among: the North American Indians. In some islands it is made of disks 

 of sea-shell and cocoanut-shell, strung alternately white and black, and disposed of 

 in lengths. In others it is formed of tortoise-shell disks, strung and used in the 

 same manner. 



In the Loo Choo Islands, which are midway between Micronesia and China or 

 Japan, the Chinese money is in use. This consists of small circular copper coins, 

 known to Europeans as ' cash.' They have a hole in the centre, are strung on 

 strings, and usually disposed of in lengths. According to the Chinese authorities, 

 the money anciently used in that empire, before metallic coins were known, was of 

 tortoise-shell. The earliest Chinese copper coins of which specimens are known 

 are of various shapes, probably fashioned after the shapes of this tortoise-shell 

 money. Most of them are round, with a hole in the centre, but some are oblong, 

 and perforated at one end for stringing, like the Calif ornian shell-slips. The 

 Chinese have ' mock-money,' made of tinfoil and paper, which is burnt in their 

 sacrifices. This is regarded as evidence that their current money was originally 

 made of some combustible material. 



The natural inference from these facts is that the knowledge and use of the 

 Chinese shell-money were probably carried in early times from Eastern Asia, or 

 from Micronesia, to this continent. The manner in which this may have occurred 

 is shown by the fact that many Japanese junks have been wrecked during the 

 present century on the west coast of North America. The Micronesians also have 

 large and weli-rigged vessels, in which they are accustomed to make long voyages, 

 and one of which may easily have drifted to that coast. 



The use of this currency as a medium of exchange in the Pacific Islands and in 

 North America, whether it is regarded as of indigenous origin or as introduced 

 from abroad, must in either case be deemed an evidence of good intellectual 

 powers in the people who employ it. 



4. Marriage Laws of the North American Tribes. By Major J. W. Powell. 



A definition of the term law that will hold good under all circumstances 

 must bs divested of the many theories of its origin, the source of its authority, 

 and its ethic characteristics, which are expressed or implied in customary defini- 

 tions, and laws must be considered as objective facts. The following definition 

 will perhaps do under all circumstances : A laio is a rule of conduct which organised 

 society endeavours to enforce. 



In civilisation law is theoretically founded on justice, but in savagery principles 

 of justice have little consideration. There are two fundamental principles at the 

 basis of primitive law, viz. : first, controversy should be prevented ; second, con- 

 troversy should be terminated. A third is derivative from them, namely: infrac- 

 tion of law should be punished. These principles enter into primitive law in many 

 curious ways. 



It was customary among the tribes of North America for individuals to mark 

 their arrows, in order that the stricken game might fall to the man by whose 

 arrow it had been dispatched. 



A war party of Sioux surprised a squad of sleeping soldiers, who were all killed 

 at the first volley from the Indians. Their arms, blankets, and other property 



