WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 385 



<explain or confirm, or by the dignity of the persons to whom they 

 are to be delivered." Though belts might be made in this way, 

 they would not have the width mentioned, as six strings laid side 

 t>y side would not give a breadth of one inch. Lafitau's account 

 is better. "The belts are large bands^ in which little white and 

 purple cylinders are disposed in rows, and tied down with small 

 thongs of leather, which makes a very neat fabric. . . The 

 usual belts are of eleven rows of i8o beads each." Carver said: 

 ■" Being strung on leather strips and several of them sewed neatly 

 together with fine sinewy threads, they then compose what is termed 

 a belt of wampum." This is reversing the mode, as no strip of 

 leather would pass through the small aperture. Yet Charlevoix 

 gave much the same account in his 13th letter, in describing 

 branches and collars. "The branches are no more than four or five 

 threads or small straps of leather, about a foot in length, on which 

 the grains or beads of wampum are strung. The collars are in the 

 manner of fillets or diadems formed of these branches, sewed to- 

 gether with thread, making four, five, six or seven rows of beads, 

 and of a proportionable length; all which depends on the importance 

 of the affair in agitation, and dignity of the person to whom the 

 collar is presented." This seems far from the truth. 

 In his League of the Iroquois, L. H. Morgan said: 

 "Belts were made by covering one side of a deerskin belt with 

 these beads, arranged after various devices and with most laborious 

 skill." No such belts are known, but it is probable that the early 

 quill belts were of this nature, if their existence is allowed. 



, Mr Morgan gave a better account -the following year, when he 

 said: "The most common width was 3 fingers or the width of 7 beads, 

 the length ranging from 2 to 6 feet. In belt-making, which is a 

 simple process, eight strands or cords of bark thread are first twisted 

 from filaments of slippery elm, of the requisite length and size; 

 after which they are passed through a strip of deerskin to separate 

 them at equal distances from each other in parallel lines. A splint 

 is then sprung in the form of a bow, to which each end of the 

 several strings is secured, and by which all of them are held in 

 tension, like warp threads in a weaving machine. Seven beads, 

 these making the intended width of the belts, are then run upon a 

 thread by means of a needle, and are passed under the cords at 

 right angles, so as to bring one bead lengthwise between each cord 



