WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 415 



Fig. 239 is of seven rows, and has four pairs of black diamonds on 

 a white ground. The diamonds are linked in pairs. Among the 

 black beads at one end is a small white cross. Donaldson says of 

 this that, having "the Five Nations upon seven strands, it illustrates 

 a treaty with seven Canadian tribes before the year 1600." It is 

 probable there should be another pair of diamonds^ but this age can 

 hardly be allowed, as these tribes came into existence in the i8th 

 century. Wampum like this was not known in the interior of New 

 York till very much later than his date. In 1886 Webster called it 

 a belt of admission to the league. It is a recent belt on buckskin 

 thongs. 



Fig. 249 was once a fine belt of 13 rows, but is now quite defec- 

 tive, having lost much since first seen by the writer. The ground 

 is of white beads, with four triple diagonal lines of black. The 

 outer lines of these are two beads deep, the inner one being sep- 

 arated by white lines of two beads. This is on buckskin thongs. 



Fig. 236 is a belt of 7 rows, with a zigzag pattern at one end 

 and a series of small dark crosses. Donaldson says this " embodies 

 the pledge of seven Canadian Christianized nations to abandon their 

 crooked ways and keep an honest peace." The interpretation of 

 1886 was " St Regis tribe belt, given tO' mark their submission to 

 the power of the Six Nations, with a promise of peace." The St 

 Regis Indians are mostly of Iroquois stock, and about 150 years 

 old as a people. This belt has twine thongs, and may have been 

 made by white men. Fig. 250 shows what remained of another 

 belt in 1878. It was probably a belt of eight rows. These were all 

 then remaining out of double the number shown to Mr Clark 30 

 years earHer. The missing ones had been consumed in messages, 

 ofiferings and ceremonies. 



H. E. Krehbiel published some articles in the New York tribune, 

 July 1897, on the Canadian Iroquois belts shown him by John 

 Buck, or Skan-a-wah-ti, in 1892. Nation for nation, and chief for 

 chief, the Sixi Nations of Canada keep up the same organization as 

 in New York, and Buck was then wampum keeper, Mr Krehbiel 

 f^id; 



