WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 4II 



of an inch long, about as large as a small pipestem and hollow,, 

 strung, woven and wrought with sinews of deer, and bark. 



Mr Clark's dimensions of beads and belts are too large, but his 

 account may be compared with those more definite and later. The 

 rapid decrease in the number of belts may also be noted. They 

 were not seen again by a white man till the summer of 1878, when 

 the writer examined them at Thomas Webster's house. That fall 

 Gen. J. S. Clark obtained small photographs under difficulties, and 

 from these were made large drawings to illustrate W. H. Holmes's 

 excellent paper on the shell articles of North America. Since that 

 time the writer has had several ample opportunities of examining 

 all these belts, and the widest two were secured by him for the 

 state museum. There were but 12 remaining when he first saw 

 them, and, if Clark is correct, more than half had disappeared within 

 30 years. Some fine belts were certainly lost. 



During his knowledge of them various and conflicting interpre- 

 tations of these belts have come before the writer. Some will be 

 given to show how little is certainly known. Fig. 252 is the reputed 

 original record of the formation of the league, and the tradition is 

 constant. Clark had this interpretation, but exaggerated the belt's 

 dimensions. Instead of being 4 feet long by 16 inches broad, it 

 was 10.5 inches wide by 23 long in 1878, showing a great loss at 

 each end. The width of course had not suffered. When exhibited 

 in Syracuse in 1886 it was said: "This belt was used at the great 

 council which met to ratify the union of the Five Nations. The 

 age is unknown; nothing but the tradition of the council remains." 

 Gen. Carrington, who obtained this from the Onondagas, calls it 

 " the official memorial of the organization of the Iroquois con- 

 federacy, relating back to the middle of the i6th century." It is 

 sometimes called the Hi-a-wat-ha belt, and has been in controversy 

 in our courts over a question of ownership. It is a fine modern 

 belt of 38 rows, made on buckskin thongs, the outer ones braided, 

 and is strung with flax or hemp thread. The beads were made 

 with modern tools and are mostly purple. There is a conventional 

 heart in the center, and four open castles remain in white beads. 

 As the pattern shows that there were others beyond these on either 



