WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 33/ 



tliose SO colored retaining their original polish, being hard and 

 glossy like ivory, while those not so stained were brittle, many of 

 them falling into a white, laminated powder. The shell beads were 

 59 in number, besides those that were too badly decayed to handle, 

 and were from half an inch to one and three quarter inches in 

 length, and averaged about half an inch in diameter. They were 

 of that kind so fully described by the early writers, made from the 

 columellae of large seashells and rubbed and ground smooth with 

 great labor, and afterward drilled through their longest diameter 

 with greater labor still. . . The drilling has been done in most 

 cases from each end, the holes meeting in the center. In some of 

 the shorter ones, however, the perforations were made from one end, 

 being of uniform size throughout. The spiral grooves, where the 

 whorls of the shell wound round the hard central column, can be 

 seen in all of them." 



In another grave, lined with flat stones, he found " little copper 

 tubes and small seashells about half an inch long, with a hole drilled 

 in the large end. The only way that these latter can be strung 

 is with a * waxed end ' tipped with a bristle, such as shoemakers 

 use. This follows the whorls of the shell." The writer makes full 

 quotations here because these may be the oldest shell beads yet 

 found in New York. They were in peculiar graves and associated 

 with articles very different from those of more recent times, though 

 themselves of precisely the same character as later beads. Mr Frey 

 is so well known as a careful, experienced and intelligent observer, 

 that it is always a pleasure to quote from him. In a recent letter to 

 the writer he refers to these articles. " I found at the same time 

 about 75 beads from half an inch long to 2 inches. They were in 

 fine condition, having been colored and preserved by the oxidation 

 of some copper beads in contact." Fig. iii is of one of the larger 

 shell beads. 



Council wampum 



In distinguishing the modern council wampum from that which 

 preceded it^ and which could not have been used for the well-known 

 and historic wampum belts, it may be well to speak of the origin 

 of the name. It is not one originally used by the Huron-Iroquois, 



