WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 435 



belt is about 2 inches in width, and nearly 2 feet long." As this 

 was written in 1854 by a thoroughly competent person, it was 

 thought that an illustration of this attachment might be readily pro- 

 cured. On application it was found that the parchment and belt 

 had disappeared, a copy filling the place of the former. The prac- 

 tice of attaching a belt as the seal of a treaty seems to have been 

 common here after the colonial period. 



Abundance. The size and abundance of belts form a notable 

 feature. In Canada the supply of wampum was naturally smaller 

 than in New York, but still it might be called large till the Iroquois 

 overthrew the Hurons and the Tobacco and Neutral nations. A 

 «mall nation on the Ottawa river levied toll on all travelers, and they 

 were known as Savages of the Isle. Out of these gains they were 

 able to present the Hurons with 23 porcelain collars in 1636, and 

 as many elsewhere, in asking aid to revenge the loss of 23 of their 

 people, killed by the Iroquois. The presents were refused. The 

 wampum or porcelain used by the Hurons in personal decoration 

 may have been larger beads. Belts were less in use by them. 

 When they sent messengers to the Andastes in 1647, "that they 

 might have pity on a land that was drawing to its end," no belts 

 are mentioned. Instead there were "the most precious rarities of 

 this country, which our Hurons had taken to make a present of 

 them,, and say that it was the voice of their dying fatherland." 



This difference came out more plainly when they replied to the 

 Onondaga embassy in 1647. The H*uron ambassadors "carried like 

 presents in reply to those of the Onnontaeronnon. Our Hurons use 

 for these presents peltries, precious in the hostile country: the 

 Omiontaeronnons use collars of porcelain." The Onondagas sent a 

 new embassy with the returning Hurons. "Beside the captives that 

 Jean Baptiste was taking back he was loaded with seven great 

 collars of porcelain, each of which was of three and four thousand 

 beads." These were new presents. 



Leclerq says that in 1617 the Indians offered a number of wam- 

 pum collars to light a council fire at Three Rivers and another at 

 ^Quebec. They gave at the same time another present of 2000 



