WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 4I3 



self, had but a brief opportunity to convey his knowledge^ if he did 

 this at all. They then came into the hands of the Websters as a 

 -matter of convenience, and they had no training for the office. 

 Thomas Webster certainly gave meanings to suit himself or his 

 ■visitors, not knowing their history. 



Fig. 248 is 15 rows or 5 inches wide, is nearly 6 feet long and has 

 purple figures on a white foundation. There are 8J beads to the 

 inch of length, and it is on twine thongs. All agree that this is a 

 covenant belt with the 13 original United States, but the interpre- 

 tation of parts varies. Donaldson says it is a ** memorial of the 

 iirst treaty made by Washington on behalf of the 13 original states 

 and the president of the Six Nations at the national capitol." 

 Others have seen in the central house the capitol building at Wash- 

 ington, and in the two men within this representatives of the con- 

 tracting parties. The writer's opinion has been that the central 

 part of the house contains the Iroquois council fire, with an Indian 

 on either side clasping hands in alliance or friendship with the states 

 outside. This may be one of the belts which Clark thought con- 

 nected with the formation of the league. 



Fig. 237 is the belt which Clark thought was a French missionary 

 "belt, and which has long had that reputation. Mr Shea and others 

 have felt very sure that it is a belt given to the Onondagas by 

 Chaumonot in 1655, but this has a very slender foundation. There 

 is no hint that he presented any emblematic belt, and no probability 

 that any French belt would have been kept through the succeeding 

 wars. The Jesuits allude to none so held. The groundwork of 

 purple wampum is almost conclusive against its antiquity. On the 

 other hand a similar belt is on record over a century later. In 1775 

 the Moravian Indians sent a belt to the grand council of the Dela- 

 wares, which was 3 feet long, having a white cross at one end and a 

 band through the middle. {De Schweinits, p. 426) As the Moravians 

 and their Indians had frequent business at Onondaga, this belt is 

 Tnore likely to have been Moravian than French, if its character is 

 allowed. The cross, however, was a frequent symbol of Canada, 

 considered as a country. The sole reason for the missionary theory 

 as found in the cross terminating the white line which reaches the 



