WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 435 
belt is about 2 inches in width, and nearly 2 feet long.” As this 
was written in 1854 by a thoroughly competent person, it was 
thought that an illustration of this attachment might be readily pro- 
cured. On application it was found that the parchment and belt 
had disappeared, a copy filling the place of the former. The prac- 
_ tice of attaching a belt as the seal of a treaty seems to have been 
common here after the colonial period. 
Abundance. The size and abundance of belts form a notable 
feature. In Canada the supply of wampum was naturally smaller 
than in New York, but still it might be called large till the Iroquois 
overthrew the Hurons and the Tobacco and Neutral nations. A 
small nation on the Ottawa river levied toll on all travelers, and they 
were known as Savages of the Isle. Out of these gains they were 
able to present the Hurons with 23 porcelain collars in 1636, and 
as many elsewhere, in asking aid to revenge the loss of 23 of their 
people, killed by the Iroquois. The presents were refused. The 
wampum or porcelain used by the Hurons in personal decoration 
may have been larger beads. Belts were less in use by them. 
When they sent messengers to the Andastes in 1647, “that they 
might have pity on a land that was drawing to its end,” no belts 
are mentioned. Instead there were “the most precious rarities of 
this country, which our Hurons had taken to make a present of 
them, and say that it was the voice of their dying fatherland.” 
This difference came out more plainly when they replied to the 
Onondaga embassy in 1647. The Huron ambassadors “carried like 
presents in reply to those of the Onnontaeronnon. Our Hurons use 
for these presents peltries, precious in the hostile country: the 
Onnontaeronnons use collars of porcelain.” The Onondagas sent a 
new embassy with the returning Hurons. “Beside the captives that 
Jean Baptiste was taking back he was loaded with seven great 
collars of porcelain, each of which was of three and four thousand 
beads.” These were new presents. 
Leclerq says that in 1617 the Indians offered a number of wam- 
pum collars to light a council fire at Three Rivers and another at 
Quebec. They gave at the same time another present of 2000 
