578 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



war party, gained from a southern tribe. The point of importance 

 is that these shell pins were in use after the New York colony; 

 passed into English hands. One curious pin in the Toronto col- 

 lection has some features of a remarkable shell article in Mr Dann's 

 collection at Honeoye Falls, but the former was evidently a pin, 

 while the use of the latter is doubtful. Fig. 145 shows this, which 

 is much in the form of a short-handled ladle. The perforation sug- 

 g'ests a suspended ornament. 



Knives. The shells of Unio complanatus are abundant 

 on some early Iroquois sites, being the favorite species for food, 

 and occasionally one has been perforated. The writer found a shell 

 of Unio rectus on an Oneida site, nearly 30 miles from where 

 the mollusk lived, and this might have made a good knife but 

 showed no signs of use. It is certain such shells were used in this 

 way, but they needed little preparation. A captive to the Iroquois 

 in 1639, secretly ''picked up a shell which she found on the strand, 

 put it away without saying a word, and in the night, every body 

 being asleep, she softly cut her bonds with this shell, and fled away 

 by stealth into the forest." — Relation, 1639 



The Relation of 1647 has a full account of Father Jogues, includ- 

 ing his first captivity among the Mohawks in 1642. After his left 

 thumb had been cut off, the missionary adds, "they used a shell or 

 an oyster shell (d'vne coquille on d'vne escalle d'huitre) to cut off the 

 right thumb of the other Frenchman, in order to cause him more 

 pain." Jogues seems in doubt as to the kind, and probably gave 

 little heed to this in his sufferings. An oyster shell would hardly 

 liave been looked for so far up the Mohawk river, and, as the river 

 was less than a mile away, it was probably one brought to the village 

 for food. The incident shows that the use of shells as knives was 

 lamiliar. ' 



Kalm, in his Travels into North America, 1772, i : 341, says that the 

 Indians of New Jersey used some sharp and hard stone for a knife, 

 JOT were satisfied "with a sharp shell, or with a piece of bone which 

 they had sharpened." The Indian feast prepared far up the river 

 for Henry Hudson is well known. Among other palatable things 

 they "killed a fat dog, and skinned it in great haste with shells 



