WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 459 



some thirty years ago; and in order to gain them the more they 

 furnished them with fire-arms, with which it was easy* for them to 

 vanquish their vanquishers, whom they put to flight, and whom 

 they filled with terror at the mere sound of their guns." 



This is not in accord with the popular opinion that the Iroquois 

 ruled over the shore Indians in Hiawatha's time, and received tri- 

 bute from them, but it is in exact agreement with known facts and 

 shows why the Iroquois knew so Httle of marine shells before the 

 Dutch came. Powerful enemies shut them off from the ocean. In 

 1630 the Mohawks were almost annihilated; before 1600 they 

 were at a low ebb, and obliged to find strength in the Iroquois 

 league. They could not conquer the wampum-makers then; they 

 had little with which to buy, but time, union and opportunity 

 brought a great change. 



Atonement 



On the theory that putting a murderer to death would not restore 

 life to the victim or help his friends, the Indians often received a 

 blood atonement, which, in their words, " covered the grave." 

 Among the Hurons this was not always easily made. In the 

 Relation for 1636 we are told that they sometimes punished the mur- 

 derer in a peculiar way, after receiving some atonement in presents. 

 These were not then a full expiation. The corpse was stretched 

 on poles, under which the manslayer was placed. A dish of food 

 before him was soon filled with the decaying matter from above, 

 and to secure its removal he must make a present of 700 wampum 

 beads, called hassaendista. He was kept there at the pleasure of 

 the relatives, and when released he made another rich present, 

 called akhiataendista. A Frenchman was killed by some Hurons in 

 1648, and the Jesuits demanded presents by a number of sticks tied 

 together. These were given. For a Huron killed by a Huron they 

 commonly made 30 presents. For a woman 40, because she could 

 not so well defend herself, and because they thought women's lives 

 worth more. For a stranger they asked still more, because fre- 

 quent deaths of these might hinder trade or cause war. — Relation, 

 1648, p. 80-81 



L. H. Morgan said that among the Iroquois " six strings was 

 the value of a life, or the quantity sent in condonation, for the wam- 

 pum was rather sent as a regretful confession of the crime, with a 

 petition for forgiveness, than as the actual price of blood." Loskiel 



