6 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



the belt was spurned as an empty word. The return of a belt was un- 

 derstood as the rejection of an offer or of the terms accompanying the 

 same. A string of 'Seawan' was sometimes delivered by the orator in 

 public council at the close of each proposition as ratifying the speaker's 

 truth and sincerity. Strings of 'Wampum' were occasionally tied 

 around the neck of a white dog, and the animal thus decorated was fas- 

 tened to a pole and offered up as a sacrifice to ' Thalonghyawaagon,' 

 the upholder of the skies. Long Island was called ' Seawan-Hacky,' 

 the Island of Shells. Immense quantities of Seawan were manufactured 

 there. In the extensive shell-banks left by the Indians, a whole shell is 

 rarely found, nearly all having been more or less broken in the process 

 of making 'wampom.' The French at one time made unsuccessful 

 efforts to circulate a porcelain counterfeit. The Dutch manufactured 

 great quantities from the genuine material — their superior mechanical 

 facilities giving them much advantage over the Indians. The Dutch 

 valued three purple beads at one Stuyver (penny) — double the price of 

 the white beads. 



"According to Loskiel, 'Wampum' or 'Wampom,' signifies in the 

 language of the Iroquois a 'muscle.' 'These muscles,' he says, 'are 

 chiefly found on the coast of Virginia and Maryland, and are valued 

 according to their color, which is brown, violet, and white. The former 

 are sometimes of so dark a shade that they pass for black, and are dou- 

 ble the price of white. Having first sawed them into square pieces 

 about a quarter of an inch in length and an eighth in thickness, they 

 grind them round or oval upon a common grindstone. Then a hole 

 being bored lengthways through each, large enough to admit a wire, 

 whipcord, or thin thong, they are strung like beads and the string of 

 'wampom' is complete. Four or six strings joined in one breadth and 

 fastened to each other with fine thread make a belt of 'wampom,' being 

 about three or four inches wide and three feet long, containing, perhaps, 

 from eight or twelve fathoms of ' wampom ' in proportion to its requisite 

 length and breadth.' 



"One of the most celebrated 'wampom' belts known to have been 

 wrought by the Indians was presented to William Penn by the Lenni- 

 Lenape-Sachems on the occasion of the famous Treaty of 1682. The 

 writer has in his possession z.fac-si??iile of this belt. The original belt was 

 presented to the Pennsylvania Historical Society by Granville John 

 Penn, Esq., May 25th, 1857. It is of the very neatest workmanship. Its 

 length is twenty-six inches, and its breadth nine inches. It consists of 

 eighteen strings woven together — formed entirely of small beads strung 

 in rows. In the centre there is a rude, but striking representation, 



