WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 329 
The small white council wampum was often made of a smaller 
gasteropod, or even of the white parts of some bivalves. Fig. 9 
is a full size drawing of Buccinum undatum, which is a 
northern shell, but is found to some extent at Montauk point and 
elsewhere about Long Island. Beads were made of this. Lit- 
torina irrorata is still rarer along the New York coast, but 
one perforated specimen has been found at the Onondaga fort of 
1600, which is shown in fig. 19. Some others will be mentioned 
later. For ornamental purposes the larger shells were preferred. 
Mr Tooker says: “Some writers illustrate the basal whorl as being 
the part from which the wampum was made, but this is contrary 
to the early writers, who state that it was made ‘from the inmost 
wreaths, stem or stock, when all the shell is broken off.’ We find 
these stems in great abundance about the sites of former wigwams, 
in shell heaps and other localities.” Reference has been made to 
some figures of these. With all due deference to early writers, it 
must be confessed that some wrote what they heard rather than what 
they saw, often quoting largely without the slightest credit or per- 
sonal knowledge. 
At first beads, long or short, were made from the columellae, or 
pillars of shells, because they could be easily ground before cutting 
to the desired length, no slight advantage. With better appliances 
this was less necessary. It is clear, however, that no New York 
shell was large enough for some beads found here, but after the 
Iroquois became supreme in power southern material of a massive 
nature was easily obtained. With the increase of ornaments other 
parts of the shell became available. The whorls naturally afforded 
the curves found in gorgets and other things, and it is probable 
that these articles were first seen by the Iroquois in their southern 
wars in the 17th century. Sailors brought some materials, and a 
few articles of Haliotis shell have been found. The gradual 
increase of shell ornaments may easily be traced in any center of 
Iroquois occupation, and the use of metallic tools in their produc- 
tion. 
In fact these tools changed everything, though there were other 
reasons ‘for the sudden increase of wampum in the 17th century. 
