390 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Lettered. Belts with letters on them obviously had a civilized 

 origin, and were often made by Indians to whom the design was 

 ^iven. Animated by religious zeal, and naturally liberal in their 

 gifts, the poor Huron exiles near Quebec devised such a belt in 

 1654. It was an offering to the Virgin Mary by the first congrega- 

 tion of Notre Dame in the Huron colony. They had small means, 

 but collected several hundred beads and formed of these a belt. On 

 a ground of white wampum black beads made the words Ave Maria 

 gratia, plena. This was accompanied by a Huron letter on birch 

 bark, dictated by the Indians and written by the priests. ^ Both were 

 sent to Paris, where later belts found their way. The same colony 

 sent a belt to Chartres cathedral in 1679, which was 4!feet 9 inches 

 long, and 2.75 inches wide. On a foundation of white beads were 

 black letters reading Virgini pariturae votum Huronuni. This belt 

 was bordered with embroidery of red porcupine quills. 



The writer of the Relation of 1683-4 was enthusiastic over the 



Abenakis mission, in the chapel of which was a figure of St Francis 



de Sales: 



There was placed below the image of the saint a very large porce- 

 lain collar, adorned with porcupine quills. . . It is the most 

 beautiful- collar I have seen made here. . . Tall Jeanne, who 

 made the whole collar and colette, who set the porcupine quills in 

 it, has done so with a great zeal of honoring the saint. The in- 

 scription on the collar is: 6^. franc salisio Abnaq. D. (Sancto fran- 

 cisco salisio Abnaqniis Donatum). 



W. L. Hildburgh has furnished the writer with descriptions and 

 sketches of some wampum belts in Europe. Of one in the museum 

 of the Propaganda in Rome little could be learned. Four are in 'the 

 Trocadero palace in Paris, all of which are Huron. One is 12 beads 

 deep and about 200 long, but is broken at both ends. The black 

 letters on the white ground read, VIRGIN. IMMAC. HVRD. D. 

 This has been figured in Gallcrie Americainc du nuiscc cthno graphic 

 du Trocadero, with three others. Fig. 271 shows this as drawn from 

 the photograph by Mr Hildburgh. 



A small number of lettered belts appeared in the English colonies 

 much later. Gov. Burnett gave one to the Six Nations at Albany 

 in 1724, on which were the letters G. R., for King George. An- 



