344 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Erie war during the Honnonouaroia or dream feast. They .brought a 

 message from Taronhiaouagui the Holder of the Heavens, of a 

 curious nature. One requisition was lo beads from each cabin and 

 a belt 10 rows wide. The Onondagas did all that was asked. That 

 year in the same town, *' 3000 grains of porcelain having been 

 lost they consulted a diviner^ who masked the face and hid 

 the eyes to see more clearly that which they told him. He ran 

 through the streets, followed by the populace, and, having run well, 

 he went straight to the foot of a tree, where he found 2000 grains. 

 He retained the third thousand to pay for his trouble." 



Father Jogues sent 2000 beads to Onondaga in 1646, with an offi- 

 cial message, and these must have been strung. Brebeuf 10 years 

 before this gave 1200 beads in the Huron council, because all im- 

 portant speeches required presents, and this may be as far back 

 as official strings appear. Then came three strings from the Mo- 

 hawks in 1657. The Maryland and Virginia commissioners gave 

 the Senecas a hank of sewant in 1682 with their propositions, 

 and to the other four nations the same. They responded with 

 beaver skins and belts. The custom grew with the English, and 

 the Iroquois followed their lead. The Christian Mohawks gave 

 three fathoms of wampum in 1691, and the whole nation did the 

 same soon after. There was economy in this when the supply of 

 wampum ran low in the last years of that century. Dekanissora 

 gave a bunch of 48 hands of black and white wampum in 1699. 



After that the use of strings for messages and councils became 

 frequent. In Pennsylvania in 1707, Harry the interpreter laid 

 " upon the board Six loose strings of white Wampum for his Cre- 

 dentials " from the queen and principal men of Conestoga. — Penn. 

 Minutes, 2:403. Similar proof is required yet. Strings often re- 

 placed belts. At Onondaga in 1713, " the sachems called all to- 

 gether by order of the Five Nations^ and spoke with three strings 

 in their loftiest style." Wampum in hand they often speak yet. 

 In 1756 the French sent a string of wampum to Onondaga to con- 

 dole some losses. On strings of beads deaths are still condoled. 

 In 1793 the Five Nations were called to a council of the Ohio In- 

 dians " by four double strings of black and white wampum." Color 

 and number are yet of importance. 



