WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 339 



in arriving at sound conclusions, even when told as simple tales of 

 the forest. 



In one story related by Mrs E. A. Smith, Hiawatha does not 

 appear, but there is an obscure connection through the wampum 

 bird. A man discovered this in the woods and hastened home with 

 the news. The head chief offered his beautiful daughter to any one 

 who would take the bird, dead or alive, and many were the arrows 

 winged with this hope. Sometimes the bird was hit and off would 

 fly a shower of wampum, speedily renewed on the strange visitor. 

 No one could bring it to the ground. The best warriors despaired 

 of success. Then came a little boy from an unfriendly tribe and 

 wished to try his luck. This the warriors would not allow, and 

 even threatened his life. The chief interfered. When warriors 

 failed, a boy need not be feared, and his bow was bent. The swift 

 arrow flew, the wonderful bird fell^ and its plumage enriched the 

 people. With the marriage came peace to two nations, and the 

 boy decreed that wampum should bring and bind peace, and atone 

 ior blood. — Smith, p. 78. The feature to which attention is directed 

 is that the first Iroquois wampum was of quills of some kind, accord- 

 ing to this and some other legends. David Boyle gives this story 

 in a larger form in his Archaeological report for 1899. 



Another story, briefly related by Mrs Smith, is that Hiawatha 

 came to a little lake while on his way to the Mohawks. While he 

 was thinking how he should cross it, a flock of ducks lit on the 

 water. When they flew off the lake was dry, and the bottom filled 

 with shells. Of these the great chief made the first wampum for 

 the new confederacy. — Smith, p. 64. This story is variously 

 told, and some Onondagas now think the dry basin of one of the 

 Tully lakes was the scene of this wonderful event. White and 

 dead shells are so abundant beside all lakes and ponds that the ducks 

 were hardly needed; and no fresh-water shells in those of central 

 New York could have been wrought into wampum belts. The story 

 is in line with Mr Morgan's statement, received from the Senecas, 

 that the first Iroquois wampum was of fresh-water shells. The 

 speedy introduction of beads probably prevented its general use. 

 Horatio Hale mentions this story in his Iroquois hook of rites, but 

 leaves out the ducks. 



