WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 46I 



things useful to the deceased during Hfe. They are his robe, col- 

 lar, canoe, paddle, nets, bow and arrows, and many other things. 

 With these gifts thus properly presented the relatives were usually 

 satisfied. 



There are some interesting notes on presents in general and the 

 atonement in particular in the Relation of 1642, p. 53. 



The presents among the peoples are all the affairs of the country: 

 they dry the tears, they appease anger, they open the gate of the 

 country to strangers, they deliver prisoners, they revive the dead. 

 Nothing is said, as it were, and nothing answered but by presents; 

 it is on this account that in harangues the present passes for a word. 

 They make presents to animate men to war, to invite peace, to in- 

 duce a family or nation to come and take a place and dwell near 

 you, to satisfy or pay those who have received any harm or any 

 wound, specially if blood has been shed. The presents which they 

 make for the death of a man who has been murdered are in great 

 number; and observe, if you please, that it is not usually the assas- 

 sin who makes these but the relatives, the village or the nation, 

 according to the quality or condition of him who has been put to 

 death. Nor yet think that this procedure gives some liberty to 

 mutinous spirits to make a bad stroke. Not at all. The trouble 

 into which a murderer throws all the public powerfully restrains. 

 Besides which, if he meets the relatives of the deceased before what 

 he has done is satisfied, he is put to death in the field without other 

 form of justice. 



In this way the tribe was interested in the good conduct of every 

 member, and this responsibility had a good effect. 



There is an allusion to this atonement in the condoling song 

 which is sung in presenting the wampum after the curtain is re- 

 moved. " Now the ancient lawgivers have declared — our uncles 

 that are gone, and also our Elder Brothers — they have said it is 

 worth 20 — it was valued at 20 — and this was the price of the one 

 who is dead. And we put our words on it, and they recall his name 

 — the one that is dead. This we say and do, we three brothers." 



That is, 20 strings atoned for a life, as Onondagas tell the writer. 

 They put their comforting words on this, recalling the name of the 

 dead and raising him to life in his successor. Hale said: "The 

 interpreters explained that by 20 was understood the whole of their 

 wampum, which constituted all their treasure. A human life was 



