SENTIMENTAL EEGABD TOE SHELL-MONEY. 247 



stores ; whereas if he really needs a few dollars of current cash he can 

 always "negotiate" his shells with some old Indian who happens to have 

 gold or greenbacks. Americans speculate in it here and there to advan- 

 tage, working upon the clinging love the aged savages retain for the 

 wealth of their youth. These old men save all of it they can possibly 

 acquire, and hoard it like veritable misers, only on great occasions letting 

 their women-folk wear any as jewellery. This hoarding is not so much 

 miserly greed, however, as it is a religious notion, since to their minds 

 the shell-money is the only thing worthy to be offered upon the funeral 

 pyre of any famous chief or departed friend, or to be sent along with their 

 own souls into the spirit-world. 



