tVAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 429 



Fig". 275 is a defective white belt of 15 rows, with one small, open 

 diamond and four large. Mr Wyman said: "This I secured from 

 an Indian at the ancient town of Cross Village, Michigan. It was 

 called by him a Mohawk peace belt, but I could get very little infor- 

 mation from him." 



Fig. 276 " is the Black Hawk belt, sent by this noted chief to the 

 tribes at Traverse bay, Mich., with a message that their band should 

 remain neutral during the campaigns and revolts at Michilimacki- 

 nac." This has the frequent double diamonds on a dark ground, 

 and is 10 rows deep. 



Fig. 277 is a very fine Oneida belt of unique character, and 21 

 rows wide. The design suggests Grecian art. Six double squares 

 of white beads are united, and six white diamonds are in the center 

 of these. It is nearly perfect. The owner says : " This was long 

 in the possession of chief Skenando, probably his lifetime, and came 

 to him from the old chief Skenando before him, as a silver pipe was 

 kept with the belt, inscribed to ' Skenandoah/ presented by Gov. 

 Tompkins of New York. . . The belt has been known as the 

 tribal belt of the Oneida tribe, and, farther, the legend went 

 that without this belt no council of the Six Nations could 

 be had, or was official. The belt is well preserved, woven 

 with sinew, the beads have a high polish from ages of handling, 

 and I conclude dates back at least two hundred years." The six 

 diamonds probably included the Tuscaroras, who lived in the 

 Oneida territory, and were thus more likely to appear on an Oneida 

 belt than elsewhere, but, as they came to New York about 1712, 

 this would make the belt of later date. Skenandoah was not prom- 

 inent in the colonial period, and the writer is inclined to make it 

 as late as the revolution. The silver pipe was the old chief's pride. 

 The following three are Penobscot belts. Fig. 279 is said to have 

 " belonged to Molly Molasses, sent to her parents from the young 

 buck's parents that wanted her In marriage. Molly was one of the 

 characters about Oldtown, Maine, looked on as the medicine woman 

 of the tribe. She lived to be 92 years old." It is a defective belt 

 of seven rowp pf dark beads, Part pf the white patt^rt] ^uggestj! 



