24:6 WEALTH OP THE CALIFORNIAN INDIANS. 



A third sort of money, very rarely seen nowadays, was fabricated on 

 the islands off the southern coast and on the adjacent main-land, occurring 

 in the mounds of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, mixed with the 

 small flat disks described above. This was called kol-kol, and was made 

 by grinding off the apex of the univalve shell of Olivella biplicata until 

 a cord could be passed through. It was slightly esteemed. 



Farther south all these forms of shell-cutting disappear in their capac- 

 ity of money — retaining value only as ornaments — so that their use in 

 trade south of California belongs under the head of barter. Thus Ban- 

 croft notes of the natives of Sonora, "Pearls, turquoises, emeralds, coral, 

 feathers, and gold were in former times part of their property, and held 

 the place of money." 



There seems to have been an immense amount of this regular money, 

 hiqua, allocochick, hawok and iillo on the Pacific coast; Powers thinks 

 an average of $100 worth to each male Indian would not be too large an 

 estimate for California at the time of its discovery by the Spaniards. 

 This portion equals the value of two grisly bear-skins, or three ponies, 

 or the price of two wives. However, it was not equally distributed, any 

 more than are riches in more civilized neighborhoods — a point for com- 

 munists to consider. 



The shore tribes were the coiners of this money, and jealously guarded 

 their privileges. With it they bought skins, arms, and implements from 

 the dwellers in the Coast Range, where grew animals and materials not 

 to be obtained along the beach. The mountaineers, in turn, disseminated 

 it far in the interior, where finally the beads were prized and worn as 

 ornaments, and ceased to circulate. Moreover, an enormous waste and 

 destruction was always going on (a fact also true of the Atlantic coast), 

 owing to the practice of propitiatory sacrifices, and the wide-spread cus- 

 tom of burying or burning all the wealth with each man (or noted woman) 

 who died. Thus the demand was always greater than the supply, and a 

 high value maintained. It is astonishing to read how shrewd and thrifty 

 the Indians were in respect to this shell coinage. When Americans grew 

 numerous, and began to manufacture large quantities of the hawok, of 

 course its value declined ; moreover, with the partial civilization of the 

 Indians, a new sentiment crept in, and some strange changes in primitive 

 social economy followed. 



At present the younger English-speaking Indians scarcely use it at all, 

 except in a few dealings with their elders, like wife-buying, or for gam- 

 bling. A young fellow sometimes procures it as an investment, laying 

 away a few strings of it, for he knows that he cannot squander it at the 



