WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 401 
us. The Ottawas can tell you what it is, because our people have 
forgotten jit. 
M. de Lamothe. The Ottawas will reply that, having received it, 
you should remember it, but since this collar is dumb and has lost 
its speech, I am obliged to be silent myself. 
Pontiac’s great wampum belt is said to have been 6 feet long and 
4 inches wide, and would thus have contained gooo beads. It was 
covered with emblems of the 47 tribes and villages in alliance with 
him. 
In the History of the Ojebway Indians, by the Rev. Peter Jones, 
p. 121, is an interesting description of a modern belt. 
Firstly, the council fire at the Sault Ste Marie has no emblem, be- 
cause there the council was held. Secondly, the council fire at Mani- 
toulin has the emblem of a beautiful white fish; this signifies purity, 
or a clean, white heart—that all our hearts ought to be white toward 
each other. Thirdly, the emblem of a beaver, placed on an island on 
Penetanguishew bay, denotes wisdom—that all the acts of our 
fathers were done in wisdom. Fourthly, the emblem of a white 
deer, placed at Lake Simcoe, signified superiority; the dish and 
ladles at the same place indicated abundance of game and food. 
Fifthly, the eagle perched on a tall pinetree at the Credit denotes 
watching, and swiftness in carrying messages. The eagle was to 
watch all the council fires between the Six Nations and the Ojeb- 
ways, and being farsighted, he might, in the event of anything hap- 
pening, communicate the tidings to the distant tribes. Sixthly, the 
sun was hung up in the center of the belt to show that their acts 
were done in the face of the sun, by whom they swore that they 
would forever after observe the treaties made between the two 
parties. ’ 
This highly artificial character may be contrasted with the sim- 
plicity of early belts. 
In a meeting between Johnson and some Cherokees in 1758, it is 
said: “ The Cherokee spoke to the Belt of Wampum, addressing 
himself to Sir Wm., and the Belt of Wamp spoke it out in his own 
language.” The Cherokees “gave a white belt, with one black 
row of wampum in it signifying the road, & 3 figures of men signi- 
fying Sir Wm. Johnson, & the Kophy & Tsyody nations.”— 
O’Callaghan. Colonial hist. 2:766. In this case the Belt of Wampum 
who speaks is the Seneca chief known by this name, and also as Old 
Belt. 
In David Boyle’s Fourth annual report of the Canadian institute, 
