234 METHODS OF DRILLING THE BEADS. 



Some of the methods of making this finer sort of bead-coin are inter- 

 esting. " Before ever they had awle-hlades from Europe they made shift 

 to bore their shell-money with : stone." This was around Narraganset ; 

 and in the shell-heaps along the New England coast are hidden these old 

 flint awls of prehistoric design, which may have been revolved in some 

 cases by a small bow such as jewellers employ at present. In Virginia, 

 Beverly found that both sorts of peak were " in size and figure alike, and 

 resembling the English Buglas, but not so transparent nor so brittle. 

 They are wrought as smooth as glass, being one-third of. an inch long and 

 about a quarter in diameter, strung by a hole drilled through the centre." 

 Lawson describes the drilling, " which the Indians manage with a nail 

 stuck in a cane or reed. Thus they roll it continually on their thighs 

 with their right hand, holding the bit of shell with their left; so in time 

 they drill a hole quite through it, which is very tedious work, but espe- 

 cially in making their ronoak." 



The coinage, so to speak, of this shell-money was, therefore, a work 

 of patient labor, and great delicacy of manipulation, and there was no fear 

 of increasing the supply beyond the demands of trade by the worth of 

 one deer-skin, since a savage would rarely make a single bead more than 

 sufficed for his immediate necessities. It was a true medium of exchange 

 — real currency. All the early accounts speak of it as "riches" and 

 " money " and " current specie." 



The Delawares in fact had a tribal treasury of wampum, out of which 

 were paid the expenses of public affairs. At certain feasts a great 

 quantity of it was scattered, to be scrambled for by the youngsters — 

 carnival fashion. Hired servants at these feasts or anywhere else were 

 paid in wampum, and great quantities were thrown into graves. 



It followed as a matter of course that the shrewd first traders who 

 came to New York and New Jersey should adopt this currency which 

 all the natives were accustomed to, receiving it as pay for -their mer- 

 chandise, and with it buying peltries of the Indians. Thus wampum 

 quickly became a standard of values, the currency of the colonists to 

 a great extent in their transactions with each other, and even a legal 

 tender. 



Though the beads were often used separately, the ordinary and ap- 

 proved manner was to string them upon the sinews of animals or upon 

 cords, which might or might not be woven into plaits about as broad as 

 the hand, called wampum belts. The length of these strings varied, but 

 in the North about six feet was found the usual quantity computed by 



