WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 34I 



to make and use wampum. Then he showed how they might unite 

 the hostile Iroquois nations and stop their frequent wars. The 

 Mohawks were pleased with the plan, and went with him on his 

 mission of peace. The usual Onondaga tradition is that their first 

 wampum was made of porcupine quills. — Beauchamp, p. 295-305 



It would be pleasant to follow Hiawatha and his friends to the 

 several nations, but their adventures have nothing farther to do with 

 wampum. Mr Hale maintained that his name had much in keep- 

 ing, defining it as " He whO' seeks the wampum belt," and his words 

 may be quoted from the Iroquois hook of rites. 



This name, which as Hiawatha is now familiar to us as a house- 

 hold word, is rendered '' He who seeks the wampum belt." Chief 

 George Johnson thought it was derived from oyonwa, wampum belt, 

 and ratiehwatha, to look for something, or rather to seem to seek 

 something which we know where to find. M. Cuoq refers the latter 

 part of the word to the word katha, to make. The termination atha 

 is, in this sense, of frequent occurrence in Iroquois compounds. 

 The name would then mean *' He who makes the wampum belt," 

 and would account for the story which ascribes to Hiawatha the 

 invention of wampum. The Senecas, in whose language the word 

 oyonwa has ceased to exist, have corrupted the name to Hay owentha, 

 which they render " He who combs." This form of the name has 

 also produced its legend, which is referred to elsewhere. Hiawatha 

 combed the snakes out of Atotarho's head when he brought that 

 redoubted chief into the confederacy. 



The Onondagas call this Hi-e-zvat-ha; and Mr Hale's Onondaga 

 interpreter told the writer that it could not mean the maker or seeker 

 of the wampum belt. He came nearer to Johnson's interpretation, 

 rendering it. " He who seeks something which he knows where 

 to find." This would well describe the seeker for peace among 

 kindred but alienated nations. Historically Mr Hale's definition 

 will not standi for it seems there was no true wampum belt in Hia- 

 watha's day, and only strings appear in the stories. Some equiva- 

 lent article there may have been. Philologically it seems as plain. 

 The Senecas could not have lost the name for a belt, but Hiawatha 

 is an Onondaga word, and wampum belt is otekoa kaswentah in that 

 dialect. The chief was adopted by the Mohawks, and 200 years 

 ago they called a wampum belt gai-onni, sometimes gazvenda. The 

 interpretation fails. 



