330 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



shores of the continent. A large number of specimens or pieces of Au- 

 lo-ne or Ab-a-lone money (iihl-lo), of recent (white man's) manufacture — 

 all alike, too much alike to be genuine — made from the columella, or 

 "outer edge," as Mr. Powers calls it, are in the collection of the Na- 

 tional Museum. These came from the west coast, but they are simply 

 samples of "false peage," as the bogus shell money of the Atlantic side 

 was termed. 



Unlike the shell money of the east coast Indians, the shell money of 

 the red men of the west coast had no status as "a medium or cur- 

 rency" with the whites. The necessities of the period and of the situ- 

 ation that led to and caused the very general use of wampum or shell 

 money in the intercourse and relations of the red men and white settlers 

 of the Atlantic sea-board never existed on the western slope of the 

 continent. 



The Indian money of the west coast was practically used only among 

 the Indians themselves. Neither, so far as we can perceive, has the 

 hi-qua, hai-qua, or alli-co- chick, the kol-kol, ha-wock, or iihl-lo, in what- 

 ever manner or form used or combined, ever held as high or a similar 

 place or function as or with the wampum or Indian money of the ancient 

 Americans of the East in its symbolic, historical, governmental, and 

 mnemonic aspects. 



There is, it will be admitted, a touch of pathos, a gleam of sentiment, 

 exhibited in the preference of the "old Indians" for their money, "a 

 touch of nature" in their esteeming it "as alone worthy to be offered up 

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



The Indian money of the Pacific coast* was hardly more than money, 

 jewelry, or ornament. However used it was never more than these — an 

 evidence of the acquisitive spirit and wealth of its possessor. The In- 

 dian money of the Atlantic coast had other uses and served higher pur- 

 poses, and in these latter aspects indicated the intelligence and latent 

 intellectual power and strength of the native red men of that side, and 

 by comparison from this point of view serves also to show the superiority 

 of the aborigines of the eastern to those of the western side of the con- 

 tinent. 



SHELL MONEY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 



The use of cowry money in the African slave trade has heretofore 

 been mentioned. It will be seen upon investigation that the shell 

 money of the red men of North America was commonly used for a 

 similar purpose, as well as for the compounding of crimes and the 

 evasion of the penalties demanded by justice. In these latter respects 

 the black and white peage of the east, and the haiJc-wa, alli-co-chicJc and 

 ha-woclc of the west coast, were of equal potency with the most ap- 



* The Mojaves Lave a species of currency called pook, consisting of strings of shell 

 beads, whose value is determined by the length. (Whipple, Pac. E. R. Reports, vol. 

 in, p. 115.) 



