388 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



thick with these Beads in pleasant wild works, and a broad Belt ol 

 the same^ his Accoutrements were valued at Twenty pounds. 



This was embroidery, much like modern Indian beadwork, and 

 appears in early pictures of King Philip. 



That council belts were much the same as now at an early day- 

 will appear from fig. 282, a reproduction of La Hontan's picture o£ 

 De la Barre's council at La Famine in 1684. It is from the second 

 EngHsh edition, published in 1735. Fig. 255 also represents an 

 early belt of 171 1, taken from the picture of " Fce-yee-neen-ho-ga,. 

 Emperor of the Six Nations," painted from one of the four Mohawks 

 then in England. The belts are like those of the present day. 



Beading. Heckewelder, p. 107-8, gives an interesting account of 



the periodical reading of wampum. 



For the purpose of refreshing their own memories^ and of in~ 

 structing one or more of their most capable and promising young 

 men in these matters, they assemble once or twice a year. On these 

 occasions they always meet at a chosen spot in the woods, at a 

 small distance from the town, where a fire is kindled, and at the 

 proper time provisions are brought out to them. There, on a large 

 piece of bark or on a blanket, all the documents are laid out in such 

 order, that they can at once distinguish each particular speech, the 

 same as we know the particular contents of an instrument of writing 

 by the indorsement on it. . . Their speaker then, who is al- 

 ways chosen from among those who are endowed with superior 

 talents^ and has already been trained up to the business, in an audi- 

 ble voice delivers, with the gravity that the subject requires, the 

 contents, sentence after sentence, until he has finished the whole 

 on one subject. On the manner in which the belts or strings of 

 wampum are handled by the speaker, much depends; the turning- 

 of the belt which takes place when he has finished one half of his 

 speech, is a material pointy though this is not common in all 

 speeches with belts; but when it is the case, and is done properly,, 

 it may be as well known by it how far the speaker has advanced in 

 his speech, as with us on taking a glance at the pages of a book 

 or pamphlet while reading; and a good speaker will be able to point 

 out the exact place on a belt which is to answer to each particular 

 sentence, the same as we can point out a passage in a book. Belts 

 and strings, when done with by the speaker, are again handed to* 

 the chief, who puts them up carefully in the speech bag or pouch. 



In describing the use of one by the Indians and Sir William 



Johnson^ John Long said that it was of many rows, black at the 



sides and white in the middle. This signified the path of peace, and 



