438 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
a belt to the Delawares in 1756, which was a fathom long and 25 
rows wide. Both these nations paid a large annual tribute of wam- 
pum to the Five Nations, amounting to a score or more of belts 
from each. Many of Johnson’s belts were quite large, and in 1756 
the Mohawks gave him one which was called a broad belt. No 
belts on record were.as wide as two now in the state museum. 
Though there are a few instances of very wide belts, it is probable 
that, where large numbers were brought together, the usual length 
and width prevailed. Perhaps the council of Scioto of 1771 alone 
rivaled Garakontié’s collection, as a hundred belts were ready for 
this some time before the council met. 
There are more belts now in existence than is commonly sup- 
posed. Several have come to the writer’s notice, and David Boyle 
writes him that of recent Canadian ones “some 50 or 60 belts and 
strings have disappeared,” and sensibly adds: “One answers our 
purpose as well as a dozen or a score.” This philosophic remark 
may be qualified by the fact that belts vary much in form and 
symbols, however rarely their history can be traced. No one will 
object to a good supply. 
Uses of wampum 
Wampum was used in many ways. In 1646 the Mohawks 
“offered a fathom of wampum to kindle a council fire at Three 
Rivers, and a great collar of 3000 grains to serve as wood or fuel 
for this fire. The savages make no assembly unless with a calumet 
of tobacco in the mouth, and as the fire is necessary to take the 
tobacco, they almost always light some in all their assemblies.”— 
Relation, 1646. ‘This seems the circumstance mentioned by Le- 
clerq, as occurring much earlier, but in the same words.  (Leclerq, 
I :126) 
In 1657 a returning Onondaga war party was “regaled with many 
thousands of porcelain.”’ At the same place in 1670 Father Milet 
used wampum in teaching. “During one week I placed before their 
eyes different strings of porcelain to mark the number and diversi- 
