WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 429 
Fig. 275 is a defective white belt of 15 rows, with one small, open 
diamond and four large. Mr Wyman said: “ This I secured from 
an Indian at the ancient town of Cross Village, Michigan. It was 
called by him a Mohawk peace belt, but I could get very little infor- 
mation from him.” 
Fig. 276 “is the Black Hawk belt, sent by this noted chief to the 
tribes at Traverse bay, Mich., with a message that their band should 
remain neutral during the campaigns and revolts at Michilimacki- 
nac.” This has the frequent double diamonds on a dark ground, 
and is 10 rows deep. 
Fig. 277 is a very fine Oneida belt of unique character, and 21 
rows wide. The design suggests Grecian art. Six double squares 
of white beads are united, and six white diamonds are in the center 
@mtnese. (lt is nearly’ periect. “The owner says: (“iis was: lone 
in the possession of chief Skenando, probably his lifetime, and came 
to him from the old chief Skenando before him, as a silver pipe was 
kept with the belt, inscribed to ‘Skenandoah,’ presented by Gov. 
Tompkins of New York. . . The belt has been known as the 
tribal belt of the Oneida tribe, and, farther, the legend went 
that without this belt no council of the Six Nations could 
be had, or was official The belt is well preserved, woven 
with sinew, the beads have a high polish from ages of handling, 
and I conclude dates back at least two hundred years.” The six 
diamonds probably included the Tuscaroras, who lived in the 
Oneida territory, and were thus more likely to appear on an Oneida 
belt than elsewhere, but, as they came to New York about 1712, 
this would make the belt of later date. Skenandoah was not prom- 
inent in the colonial period, and the writer is inclined to make it 
as late as the revolution. The silver pipe was the old chief's pride. 
The following three are Penobscot belts. Fig. 279 is said to have 
“belonged to Molly Molasses, sent to her parents from the young 
buck’s parents that wanted her in marriage. Molly was one of the 
characters about Oldtown, Maine, looked on as the medicine woman 
of the tribe. She lived to be 92 years old.” It is a defective belt 
of seven rows of dark beads. Part of the white pattern suggests 
letters. 
