390 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Lettered. Belts’ with lettersion them obviously had a civilized 
origin, and were often made by Indians to whom the design was 
given. Animated by religious zeal, and naturally liberal in their 
gifts, the :poor Huron exiles near Quebec devised such a belt in 
1654. It was an offering to the Virgin Mary by the first congrega- 
tion of Notre Dame in the Huron colony. They had small means, 
but collected several hundred beads and formed of these a belt. On 
a ground of white wampum black beads made the words Ave Maria 
gratia, plena. This was accompanied by a Huron letter on birch 
bark, dictated by the Indians and written by the priests. Both were 
sent to Paris, where later belts found their way. The same colony 
sent a belt to Chartres cathedral in 1679, which was 4'feet 9 inches 
long, and 2.75 inches wide. On a foundation of white beads were 
black letters reading Virgim pariturae votum Huronum. This belt 
was bordered with embroidery of red porcupine quills. 
The writer of the Relation of 1683-4 was enthusiastic over the 
Abenakis mission, in the chapel of which was a figure of St Francis 
de Sales: 
There was placed below the image of the saint a very large porce- 
lain collar, adorned with porcupine quills. . . It is the most 
beautiful collar 1 have seen made vhere..- Vall) Jeanne sane 
made the whole collar and colette, who set the porcupine quills in 
it, has done so with a great zeal of honoring the saint. The in-- 
scription on the collar is: S. franc salisio Abnag. D. (Sancto fran- 
cisco salisio Abnaquis Donatum). : 
W. L. Hildburgh has furnished the writer with descriptions and 
sketches of some wampum belts in Europe. Of one in the museum 
of the Propaganda in Rome little could be learned. Four are in'the 
Trocadero palace in Paris, all of which are Huron. One is 12 beads 
deep and about 200 long, but is broken at both ends. The black 
letters on the white ground read, VIRGIN. IMMAC. HVRD. D. 
This has been figured in Gallerie Americaine du musée ethnographie 
du Trocadero, with three others. Fig. 271 shows this as drawn from 
the photograph by Mr Hildburgh. ; 
A small number of lettered belts appeared in the English colonies 
much later. Gov. Burnett gaveione to the Six Nations at Albany 
in 1724, on which were the letters G. R., for King George. An- 
