358 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
disappeared, and it seems to have been a largess. They provided 
wampum for many occasions. Onniatsara was the “ porcelain 
which the women attach to the hair which hangs back of the 
head.” —Bruyas, p. 75 
Zeisberger’s Onondaga dictionary has many Mohawk words. 
In it wampum appears as otgora, a belt of this as gaschwechta, and 
a string as ganachsa. The Seneca name of a shell bead is otekoa. 
In the note to Montcalm’s letter of April 24, 1757, taken from 
Lafitau, we are told that the belts were commonly called gaionne; 
also garihoua, an affair, and gawenda, a speech or message. An- 
other name was gaianderensera, greatness or nobility, as chiefs only 
were employed in affairs requiring belts. They furnished belts and 
strings, and the wampum was divided among them when presents 
were made and answers given. Among the Onondagas now wam- 
pum is called ote-ké-, a wampum belt is ote-kd-a-ka-swén-tah, and 
a wampum string ote-kd-4-ka-ndh-sah. Not long since they used it 
as money, and persons yet living have been paid in this. 
Pictures of women adorned with large beads appear in accounts 
of Champlain’s voyages. The French also observed that the Can- 
adian Algonquin women, in 1639, “wear their hair in a knot at 
the back of the head, in the form of a truss, which they ornament 
with porcelain when they have any.’”’ An Iroquois chief, who was 
é 
killed in an attack on the French in 1642, wore “a kind of crown 
of deer’s hair tinted scarlet, with a collar of porcelain.” In an 
account of differences between Indians and Europeans, written in 
1658, it was noted that the savages wore bracelets about their el- 
bows and ankles as well as wrists. Men wore wampum collars 
more than women. They wore small wampum beads variously 
strung, chaplets of beads, little tubes of glass or of shells. This 
relates to Canada. 
In an account of New York Indians in 1649, it is said, “ They 
twine both white and black wampum around their heads. Form- 
erly, they were not wont to cover these, but now they are beginning 
to wear bonnets and caps which they purchase from the Christians. 
They wear wampum in their ears, around the neck, and around 
the waist, and thus in their way are mighty fine.” Arnoldus Mon- 
