WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES * 383 



ancient village site at Van Cortlandt park, N. Y. city." Lower mar- 

 gin battered. 



** 1 1 Worked clam shell (mercenaria) possibly a spoon. 

 From ancient shell heap at Throggs neck, N. Y. city." The upper 

 and anterior margins are both cut down; the latter very much so. 

 The unworked form would have been as serviceable as a spoon, but 

 it may have been used in this way. It may be added that marine 

 shell heaps are of very uncertain age, white men often feasting on 

 those begun centuries before. 



Wampum keepers 



In discussing wampum at another time the writer had occasion 

 to speak of Mr Morgan's statement in the League of the Iroquois^ 

 p. 65, where he says that Ho-no-we-na-to, of the Onondaga Wolf 

 clan, was hereditary keeper of the wampum. Captain George, who 

 long bore this principal chief name, never had anything to do with 

 the belts. Thomas Webster, or 0-ya~ta-je-wah, who held them till 

 his death, was a. Snipe. Abram La Fort, or Te-at-gah-doos, from 

 whom he received them, was a Bear. John Buck, or S kan-a-wah-ti, 

 the Onondaga Canadian wampum-keeper, was a Turtle. David 

 Zeisberger was adopted into the Onondaga Turtle clan in 1745, and 

 the keeper of the wampum thus became his foster brother. At a 

 later day Zeisberger kept the wampum himself. The truth is, it 

 was a questio,n of convenience and ability. Even at the time Mor- 

 gan wrote, Ho-no-we-na-to did not keep the belts, nor have his sev- 

 eral successors held them. 



In regard to belts belonging to the confederacy, the Onondagas 

 were the keepers as a matter of convenience, but they did not con- 

 trol those belonging to other nations. These gave, received and 

 kept belts as they pleased. Of late it has been supposed that there 

 were wampum-keepers for both the Elder and Younger Brothers 

 as bodies, but the writer knew well both the reputed keepers, and 

 there seems tO' have been but one recognized office of the kind. 

 Many Indians long had wampum of their own, and a few have a 

 little even now. 



Conrad Weiser made a quaint note, July 20, 1747, about a Del- 



