WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 337 
those so colored retaining their original polish, being hard and 
glossy like ivory, while those not so stained were brittle, many of 
them falling into a white, laminated powder. The shell beads were 
59 in number, besides those that were too badly decayed to handle, 
and were from half an inch to one and three quarter inches in 
length, and averaged about half an inch in diameter. They were 
of that kind so fully described by the early writers, made from the 
columellae of large seashells and rubbed and ground smooth with 
great labor, and afterward drilled through their longest diameter 
with greater labor still. . . The drilling has been done in most 
cases from each end, the holes meeting in the center. In some of 
the shorter ones, however, the perforations were made from one end, 
being of uniform size throughout. The spiral grooves, where the 
whorls of the shell wound round the hard central column, can be 
seen in all of them.” 
In another grave, lined with flat stones, he found “little copper 
tubes and small seashells about half an inch long, with a hole drilled 
in the large end. The only way that these latter can be strung 
is with a ‘waxed end’ tipped with a bristle, such as shoemakers 
use. ‘This follows the whorls of the shell.’ The writer makes full 
quotations here because these may be the oldest shell beads yet 
found in New York. They were in peculiar graves and associated 
with articles very different from those of more recent times, though 
themselves of precisely the same character as later beads. Mr Frey 
is so well known as a careful, experienced and intelligent observer, 
that it is always a pleasure to quote from him. Ina recent letter to 
the writer he refers to these articles. “I found at the same time 
about 75 beads from half an inch long to 2 inches. They were in 
fine condition, having been colored and preserved by the oxidation 
of some copper beads in contact.” Fig. 111 is of one of the larger 
shell beads. 
Council wampum 
In distinguishing the: modern council wampum from that which 
preceded it, and which could not have been used for the well-known 
and historic wampum belts, it may be well to speak of the origin 
of the name. It is not one originally used by the Huron-Iroquois, 
