156 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



sizes, forms and figures, so as to be ornaments for everj^ part of dress, 

 and expressive to them of all tlieir important transactions."* 



"According to the Indian conception, these belts could tell, by 

 means of an interpreter, the exact rule, provision, or transaction talked 

 into them at the time, and of which they were the exclusive record."** 



They mix and dispose the wampum of diit'erent colors and 

 shades, so as to be significant among themselves of almost any- 

 thing they please, and by these their words are kept and their 

 thoughts communicated to one another, as ours are by writing. 



As there were no restrictions on the production of wampum 

 by the white people, the Dutch burghers of New Amsterdam 

 embarked in its manufacture. But, although they had the ad- 

 vantage of machinery and better tools, they did not make a 

 success of the business ; for we learn that the counterfeit was 

 so poorly made that Massachusetts and Connecticut were 

 obliged to legislate upon the subject of "bad, false, and un- 

 finished peage" (wampum peage, or shell money). 



Shell Money of California. 



Although we know comparatively little of the former history 

 or the details of the life and customs of the aborigines of our 

 coast previous to its settlement by the whites, it is certain 

 that they used shells for money and ornaments. Exploration 

 of the ancient graves has shown that the custom of burying 

 money Avith the dead was practiced long before their contact 

 with the white people. The Indians of the northwest used the 

 Dentalium, or tusk-shell, as money (See Fig. 3, PL 1) and with 

 them its use was almost as common as was that of wampum 

 on the Atlantic Coast. Among the Indians of Northern Cali- 

 fornia this tusk-shell money was called alli-co-cheek. meaning 

 Indian Money. 



These shells are collected by the Indians in the following 

 manner : 



' ' An Indian when shell-fishing arms himself with a long spear, the 

 haft of which is of 'light deal; to the end of it is fastened a strip of 

 wood placed transversely, but driven full of teeth made of bone. The 

 whole affair resembles a long comb affixed to the end of a stick with the 

 teeth very wide apart. A squaw sits in the stern of the canoe, and 

 paddles it slowly along, whilst the man with the spear stands in the bow. 

 He sta'bs this comb-like affair into the sand at the bottom of the water, 

 and after giving xwo or three prods, draws it up to look at it. If he has 

 ■been successful perhaps four or five money shells have been impaled on 

 the teeth of the spear."*"'" 



*See Horatio Hale, on ' ' The Origin of Primitive Money, ' ' in Popular 

 Science Monthly, January, 1886. 



**Ethno-Conchology, by E. E. C. Stearns, in Report of U. S. National 

 Museum, 1886-87, p. 313, Washington, 1889. 



*^ ''Report of U. S. National Museum for 1886-87, p. 315. 



