A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MONEY. 329 



Disks of different sizes, perforated or otherwise, some with plain 

 edges,* others with the edges crenulatedt or regularly notched; also 

 other shapes, crescentic, elliptic, lanceolate, falciform, leaf-shaped, and 

 a number of other forms occur; but, with the exception of the discoidal 

 pieces, which may have been sometimes used as money, it is probable 

 that these were jewelry, and were used as pendants, buttons, spangles, 

 etc. 



One instance of the purchasing power of an abalone was related to 

 me many years ago by Dr. Edward Palmer. While in New Mexico, 

 upon one occasion, he was witness to a trade wherein the consideration 

 for a horse was a California abalone shell. 



How far or to what extent the use of the uhl-lo for the purposes of 

 money prevailed is quite uncertain, or where the use of it as money left 

 off or as jewelry began, is too vague even for conjecture. It is, however, 

 highly probable that it was used in both of these ways ; less as money 

 and more as jewelry or for personal decoration, and for the ornamentation 

 of the implements and appurtenances of the red man. 



As before the termination of what may be termed the wampum period 

 in the colonial history of the Atlantic sea-board States, shell money, 

 " bad, false, and unfinished peage," got into circulation, so the shell, 

 money of the west coast Indians was counterfeited or made by white 

 men with machinery, and the purchasing power consequently declined. 

 But the decline was not from this cause alone. At the time when Mr. 

 Powers wrote, he stated that " the younger English-speaking Indians 

 scarcely use it at all, except in a few dealings with their elders or for 

 gambling. One sometimes lays away a few strings of it, for he knows 

 he can not squander it at the stores, and is thus removed from tempta- 

 tion and possible bankruptcy ; and when he wishes for a few dollars of 

 American money he can raise it by exchanging with some old Indian 

 who happens to have gold. * * * It is singular how the old Indians 

 cling to this currency, when they know that it will purchase nothing 

 from the shops; but then their wants are few aad mostly supplied from 

 the sources of nature, and besides that, this money has a certain re- 

 ligious value in their minds as being alone worthy to be offered up on 

 the funeral pyre of departed friends or famous chiefs of their tribe." 



Shell money made by white men was introduced among the Indians 

 probably more than half a century ago, and quite likely by the Ameri- 

 can Fur Company at a still earlier period. In Mr. Norton's papert it 

 is stated that Mr. Astor was one of the patrons of " The Last Wampum 

 Coinage" or had been a customer, and Mr. Astor has always been re- 

 garded as the leading spirit and controlling genius of that famous com- 

 mercial enterprise whose field of operations extended to the western 



* San Miguel Island, 29132, 29134, 29135 ; Santa Rosa Island, 23711 ; Santa Barbara, 

 21854, 30398 ; Santa Cruz, 18319. 



tSan Miguel Island, 29133; Santa Barbara, 15222, 20239; Santa Cruz, 18198; Dos 

 Pueblos, 18769. Imperforate disks: San Miguel Island, 29646; Santa Barbara, 20239. 



iAm. Magazine, March, 1888. 



