306 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



pence per yard, and the white peak at nine pence. They also make 

 ruutees of the small shells, and grind them as smooth as peak; these 

 are either large, like an oval bead, and drilled the length of the oval, 

 or else they are circular and flat, almost an inch over, and drilled edge- 

 ways. * * * They also have another sort, which is current among 

 them, but of less value; and this is made of the cockle-shell,* broken 

 into small bits, with rough edges, drilled through in the same manner 

 as beads, and this they call roeuoke, and use it as peak. These sorts of 

 money bear the rates set upon them as unalterably and current as the 

 value our money are." 



William Byrd,t F. E. S., wrote: "A vertuoso might divert himself here 

 very well iu picking up Shells of various Hue aud Figure, and amongst 

 the rest that species of Conque shells which the Indian Peak is made 

 of. The extremities of them shells are Blue and the rest White, so 

 that Peak of both these colors are drilled out of the same shell, J serv- 

 ing the Natives both for Ornament and Money, and are esteemed by 

 them far beyond Gold and Silver." 



"The money of the Carolina Indians," says Lawson,§ "is of differ- 

 ent sorts, but all made of shells which are found on the coast of Caro- 

 lina," etc. * * * "The general and current species of all the Indians 

 in Carolina, and I believe * * * as far as the bay of Mexico, is 

 that which we call peak || and roenoak; but peak more especially. This 

 is that which at New York they call wampum, and have used it as cur- 

 rent money among the inhabitants for a great many years," etc. 



SUCKAUHOCK OR BLACK WAMPUM. 



One of the most common bivalve shell-fish or clams of the southern 

 coast of New England is the Venus mercenaria^ the "hard-shell clam" 

 or " round dam" of the New York market, and iu the market-stalls of 

 Boston known as the "quahog." The valves or shells of this species 

 frequently exhibit an interior purple edge, the rest of the shell being 

 of an opaque white. From the darker-colored portion** the Indians 

 made their purple or black money or beads, while from the axis of a 



* ? Fulgur carica, the Pyrula elsewhere so called. 



t History of the Dividing Line between Virginia and North Carolinia, 1728, p. 24. 



t Venus mercenaries. 



§ History of Carolina. 



|| " Peak and Boenoak beads and white shells, with Holes, which they wear in strings 

 about their Arms and Neck.*' (Jones, Present State of Virginia, 1724.) 



II Mercenaries violacea of authors. 



**In describing the hard clam or quahaug (Venus mercenaria), Ingersoll says: 

 " Toward the anterior end of the otherwise white interior of each of the valves of 

 this mollusk's shell is a deep purple or brownish black scar, indicating the point of 

 the muscular attachment; the fishermen call it the eye. This dark spot was broken 

 out of the shell by the Indians, and formed the material of their more valuable 

 coins." The above is quite misleading; the term "eye," often applied to the mono- 



