342 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



It will be seen that the writer utterly disbelieves the reputed 

 antiquity of some belts, as any intelligent antiquarian will do on 

 examination. After inspecting many he has yet to see one whose 

 beads were not made with the white man's tools, or to find in New 

 York an Iroquois site over 300 years old on which the peculiar 

 belt wampum appears. One or two beads of about that age he has 

 from the fort west of Cazenovia. It is every way probable that 

 there was an earlier use and manufacture of good wampum with 

 European tools, but it was not made or found in the interior. Ves- 

 sels passed along the coast at a very early day, and left iron im- 

 plements here and there, whose value was at once appreciated. 

 Shell beads were more easily made and became more plentiful 

 They were used for money and ornament, but the Iroquois seem to 

 have first used them in councils when strung. The true wampum 

 belts naturally come later. Not till the beaver trade began to 

 flourish, not till the Iroquois became strong, did they have many of 

 those precious beads which for a long time were the gold and silver, 

 even the pearls and diamonds of most of New York. 



While only beads which were generally of a certain size and form 

 could be used in such belts as we are accustomed to see, it is 

 evident that uniformity would not be necessary in strung wampum, 

 or in that used for ornamental purposes. Another kind of belt 

 might be made of beads varying much in size and form. This was 

 an early and rude variety, in which parallel strings of beads were 

 tied together at intervals, forming a broad surface, but not one 

 adapted for any elaborate design. Strings were of less value and 

 importance than belts, but were often as much used. The only 

 rule seems that of supply. Belts were preferred when they could 

 be had, but when lacking strings did just as well. Beaver skins 

 often took their place, and even sticks were used, but the latter 

 were to be replaced with wampum when procured. Frequent in- 

 stances will be found in our colonial records. 



In an official way wampum does not seem to have been used by 

 the Indians on the Atlantic coast. They had vast quantities of it 

 in the 17th century, and its general use as money and for mere 



