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WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 341 
to make and use wampum. Then he showed how they might unite 
the hostile Iroquois nations and stop their frequent wars. The 
Mohawks were pleased with the plan, and went with him on his 
mission of peace. The usual Onondaga tradition is that their first 
wampum was made of porcupine quills—Beauchamp, p. 295-305 
It would be pleasant to follow Hiawatha and his friends to the 
several nations, but their adventures have nothing farther to do with 
wampum. Mr Hale maintained that his name had much in keep- 
ing, defining it as ““ He who seeks the wampum belt,” and his words 
may be quoted from the lroquois book of rites. 
This name, which as Hiawatha is now familiar to us as a house- 
hold word, is rendered “ He who seeks the wampum belt.” Chief 
George Johnson thought it was derived from oyonwa, wampum belt, 
and ratichwatha, to look for something, or rather to seem to seek 
something which we know where to find. M. Cuogq refers the latter 
part of the word to the word katha, to make. The termination atha 
is, in this sense, of frequent occurrence in Iroquois compounds. 
The name would then mean “ He who makes the wampum belt,” 
and would account for the story which ascribes to Hiawatha the 
invention of wampum. The Senecas, in whose language the word 
oyonwa has ceased to exist, have corrupted the name to Hayowentha, 
which they render ‘‘He who combs.” This form*of the name has 
also produced its legend, which is referred to elsewhere. Hiawatha 
combed the snakes out of Atotarho’s head when he brought that 
redoubted chief into the confederacy. 
The Onondagas call this Hi-e-wat-ha; and Mr Hale’s Onondaga 
interpreter told the writer that it could not mean the maker or seeker 
of the wampum belt. He came nearer to Johnson’s interpretation, 
rendering it. ‘He who seeks something which he knows where 
to find.” This would well describe the seeker for peace among 
kindred but alienated nations. Historically Mr Hale’s ‘definition 
will not stand, for it seems there was no true wampum belt in Hia- 
watha’s day, and only strings appear in the stories. Some equiva- 
lent article there may have been. Philologically it seems as plain, 
The Senecas could not have lost the name for a belt, but Hiawatha 
is an Onondaga word, and wampum belt is otekoa kaswentah in that 
dialect. The chief was adopted by the Mohawks, and 200 years 
ago they called a wampum belt gai-oi, sometimes gawenda. The 
interpretation fails, 
