430 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Fig". 278 and 280 are of a very novel character. They are of 

 dark beads edged with white, and the rows cross the belt diagon- 

 ally instead of the usual way. Fig. 278 has velvet strings, and fig. 

 280 has elliptic beads on one border. Mr Wyman said these " are 

 called marriage belts, and came to me directly from the families to 

 whom the belts were descended by marriage, passing from genera- 

 tion to generation at the marriage of the oldest child. The outer 

 edge of one of the belts is made from a different variety of seashell, 

 the only ones I have ever seen. The three belts came from Mrs 

 Lizzie Nicola, one of the old-time Indian families of the Penobscot 

 tribe." 



Acts with. The' French always termed wampum belts collars of 

 porcelain, and they were used in many ways. Among the Hurons 

 in 1636 they appeared among the stakes when the ball game of 

 lacrosse was played. The Algonquins had ceremonies much like 

 other nations in reviving or raising dead chiefs and warriors. As 

 long ago as 1639, when a Canadian Algonquin had been killed, if 

 he had a wampum belt or other article of value, it was offered to 

 some good warrior. If he took it with the name of the deceased, 

 he was expected to go to war and kill or take some one in place 

 of the dead man. In a different way at Oneida in 1756, Johnson 

 gave a belt to the chief warrior, " insisting (according to the Indian 

 Custom), on his going to war, and bringing him either pirisoners 

 or scalps to give in the Room of some friends he had lost." This 

 act is somewhat related to the council of condolence. 



When the Iroquois chiefs were at Albany in 1746, " they threw 

 down a War Belt of Wampum on the Ground, it being the Indian 

 Custom to deliver War Belts or make Declarations of War in that 

 manner, this they did with remarkable Indignation intending 

 thereby to express their Resentment against The French and their 

 Allies, and their Zeal for the English." This act was not confined 

 to war belts. At Canajoharie, Ap. 13, 1759, Johnson gave the 

 Six Nations a very large black belt relating to a murder, which was 

 answered three days later. " The Speaker then threw on the 

 ground towards Sir William the large Belt which he gave on the 

 13th Inst, in a manner which according to the Indian cuftPWis w^§ 



