442 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



yet fully disappeared. In a council held in the fort in Quebec in 

 1645, the hanging of wampum was described. " In the middle was 

 a little space where the Iroquois had placed twO' poles, and stretched 

 a cord from one to the other. Attached to this were the words they 

 iDore, i. e. the presents. There were 17 porcelain collars, partly on 

 liis body, partly in a little sack." The orator took a collar in his 

 "hand and spoke, and then promenaded and sang. Le Moyne 

 adopted the promenade when he made his 19 presents at Onondaga 

 in 1654. "At each of my presents they made from the bottom of 

 the chest a powerful ejaculation as a testimony of their joy. I was 

 the full space of two hours making all my harangue in the tone of 

 a captain^ promenading after their custom like an actor on the 

 stage." A council was held with a New England nation at Quebec 

 in 1652, in the Jesuits' hall. " They began by the exhibition of the 

 presents, which they stretched on a cord which extended through 

 all the hall. Those were only very large collars of porcelain, brace- 

 lets, earrings, and calumets or petunoirs." 



This hanging up of presents is noticed by English writers. At a 

 conference with Lieut.-Gov. Evans of Pennsylvania, in 1707, " a 

 Nanticoke Indian took into his hands a Belt of Wampum from a 

 Line, whereon there was hanging nineteen others, and several 

 strings of Beads." — Pemt. Minutes, 2 1387. When John Bartram was 

 at Onondaga in 1743, Conrad Weiser delivered three broad belts 

 and five strings of wampum. " There was a pole laid across from 

 one chamber to another, over the passage, on which the belts and 

 strings were hung that all the council might see them." — Bartram, 

 p. 60. Weiser also mentioned this. ''AH the wampum was hung 

 over a stick laid across the house, about six feet from the 

 ground." There are other obscure references to this. In 1699 

 Gov. Bellomont's propositions with ** seven hands of wampum were 

 "hung up in the proposition house." Two years before Count Fron- 

 tenac gave two belts to the Foxes on account of the killing of two 

 of their chiefs by the Iroquois. These were " to hang in the cabin 

 of the dead, and to remain there until this vengeance be consum- 

 mated." The Iroquois naturally were pleased with attention to 

 5uch forms, and expressed their gratitude to Sir William Johnson 



