456 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
speak of the practice of coloring belts red when the affair concerned 
war. This was not the only tint employed. In 1757 at a council 
in Pittsburg a Wyandot “spoke again upon a belt of black and 
_white wampum, the white painted green.” Loskiel says, p. 27: 
Neither the color nor the other qualities of wampum are a matter 
of indifference, but have an immediate reference to those things 
which they are meant to confirm. The brown or deep violet, called 
black by the Indians, always means something of severe or doubt- 
ful import, but the white is the color of peace. Thus, if a string or 
belt of wampum is intended to confirm a warning against evil or an 
earnest reproof, it is delivered in black. When a nation is called 
upon to go to war, or war declared against it, the belt is black or 
marked with red, called by them the color of blood, having in the 
middle the figure of an hatchet in white wampum. 
Heckewelder says, p. 109-10: “ White and black wampum are the 
kinds they use; the former denoting that which is good, as peace, 
friendship, good will, etc., the latter the reverse; yet occasionally 
the black also is made use of on peace errands, when the white 
can not be procured; but previous to its being produced for such 
purpose, it must be daubed all over with chalk, white clay, or any- 
thing which changes the color from black to white. . . Roads 
from one friendly nation to another are generally marked on the 
belt by one or two rows of white wampum interwoven in the black, 
and running through the middle and from end to end. It means 
that they are on good terms and keep up a friendly intercourse 
with each other. 
A black belt with the mark of a hatchet mace on it with red paint 
is a war belt, which, when sent to a nation together with a twist or 
roll of tobacco, is an invitation to join in a war.” Sometimes the 
clay may have signified grief. The most remarkable departure 
from this rule was in 1756 when the French sent a string of wam- 
pum to condole the losses of the Five Nations and a white belt for 
the death of some of their sachems. Another instance was in 1699, 
when at Albany “the death of Aqueendero chief Sachim of Onnon- 
dages son was condoled according to their custome by giving of 
some white Wampum to the Sachems which was kindly accepted.” 
Some attention to color is seen in Sir William Johnson’s address 
to the warriors at Onondaga in 1756. He said: ‘‘ With these 
