Industrial and Manufacturing Uses of Shells. 283 



" They made some of shells, which they highly esteemed, 

 but they manufactured them very rarely, because this 

 labour required much time for want of the proper tools ; 

 and the beads, moreover, were of a rude and clumsy 

 appearance. Soon after their arrival in America, the Euro- 

 peans began to manufacture wampum from shells, very 

 neatly and in abundance, exchanging it to the Indians for 

 other commodities, thus carrying on a very profitable trade. 

 The Indians now abandoned their wooden belts and strings, 

 and substituted those of shell. The latter, of course, gradu- 

 ally declined in value, but, nevertheless, were and still are 

 much prized." 



The great value attached to wampum as an ornament 

 is well illustrated by the following passage from the work 

 of Roger Williams, who emigrated to North America in 

 163 1 : — "They hang these strings of money about their 

 necks and wrists, as also upon the necks and wrists of 

 their wives and children. Mdchequoce, a girdle ; which they 

 make curiously, of one, two, three, four, and five inches 

 thickness and more, of this money, which (sometimes to the 

 value of £\o and more) they wear about their middle 

 and as a scarfe about their shoulders and breasts. Yea, 

 the princes make rich caps and aprons (or small breeches) 

 of these beads thus curiously strung into many formes and 

 figures ; their blacke and white finely mixt together." The 

 wampum belts, so often mentioned in connection with the 

 history of the eastern tribes, consisted of broad straps of 

 leather, upon which white and blue wampum beads were 

 sewed in rows, being so arranged that by the contrast of 

 the light and dark colours certain figures were produced. 

 The Indians, it is well known, exchanged these belts at the 

 conclusion of peace, and on other solemn occasions, in 

 order to ratify the transaction and to perpetuate the remem- 



