358 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



disappeared, and it seems to have been a largess. They jprovided 

 wampum for many occasions. Onniatsara was the *' porcelain 

 which the women attach to the hair which hangs back of the 

 head." — Bruyds, p. 75 



Zeisberger's Onondaga dictionary has many Mohawk words. 

 In it wampum appears as otgora, a belt of this as gaschwechta, and 

 a string as ganachsa. The Seneca name of a shell bead is otekoa. 

 In the note to « Montcalm's letter of April 24, 1757, taken from 

 Lafitau, we are told that the belts were commonly called gaionne; 

 also garihoua, an affair, and gawenda, a speech or message. An- 

 other name was gaimiderensera, greatness or nobility, as chiefs only 

 were employed in affairs requiring belts. They furnished belts and 

 strings, and the wampum was divided among them when presents 

 were made and answers given. Among the Onondagas now wam- 

 pum is called ote-kS-i , a wampum belt is ote-ko- -ka-swen-tah, and 

 a wampum string ote-ko- d-ka-ndh-sah. Not long since they used it 

 as money, and persons yet living have been paid in this. 



Pictures of women adorned with large beads appear in accounts 

 of Champlain's voyages. The French also observed that the Can- 

 adian Algonquin women, in 1639, " wear their hair in a knot at 

 the back of the head, in the form of a truss, which they ornament 

 with porcelain when they have any." An Iroquois chief, who was 

 killed in an- attack on the French in 1642, wore " a kind of crown 

 of deer's hair tinted scarlet, with a collar of porcelain." In an 

 account of differences between Indians and Europeans, written in 

 1658, it was noted that the savages wore bracelets about their el- 

 bows and ankles as well as wrists. Men wore wampum collars 

 more than women. They wore small wampum beads variously 

 strung, chaplets of beads, little tubes of glass or of shells. This 

 relates to Canada. 



In an account of New York Indians in 1649, it is said, '' They 

 twine both white and black wampum around their heads. Form- 

 erly they] were not wont to cover these, but now they are beginning 

 to wear bonnets and caps which they purchase from the Christians. 

 They wear wampum in their ears, around the neck,, and around 

 the waist, and thus in their way are mighty fine." Arnoldus Mon- 



