WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 365 
a vertical perforation. Fig. 86 is a small flat pendant from Indian 
hill, Pompey. 
Discoid beads 
Early flat or discoid shell beads are somewhat rare in New York. 
The writer has found but one antedating the year 1600; and some 
other collectors have been no more fortunate. Some occur on an 
Onondaga site of that period, and on another occupied by that 
nation about 1640, nearly all the shell beads are small disks. Later 
than that there are few in that county. They are not so rare on 
more recent Seneca town sites, and have been found on several 
in large numbers. From a recent Oneida town site has also come 
a fine lot of very small ones, mostly quite thin, and both purple 
and white. These'belong to the writer, and are shown in fig. 38, 
with a tooth and two other beads. These soon gave place to the 
more showy council wampum. 
Mrs Converse obtained a string of small and irregular disk beads, 
for the state museum, about 46 inches in length, which she called 
“Canadian Algonquin wampum.” The ends of the string are 
united by a large, red ribbon, and at intervals are brownish red, 
orange yellow, and light and dark: blue ribbons. She says: “This 
string belonged to the old bunch which was sent by the Algon- 
quins to the Mohawks, long before Brant’s time, as a ransom 
for an Algonquin captive. The Mohawks carried it with them when 
they ruptured the league of the Iroquois, and departed with Sir 
John Johnson and Brant. The original bunch was strung on sinew. 
In the various divisions thread has been substituted. Originally 
the bunch was decorated with various colored feathers, which have 
been replaced with the more modern ribbon. Red signifies war, 
light blue the morning sky, yellow the sun, dark blue the noon 
- sun, maroon or very dark red the approaching of the night shadows. 
Each decoration signifies the division of the story of this wam- 
pum, which was recited at the ancient councils. This string has 
been preserved as a record and not used in modern times. I be- 
lieve this to have been constructed before the pictograph wampum 
belts—Grand River reserve, Canada, June 7, 1899.” Fig. 233 shows 
this, 
