A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MONEY. 313 



In Major Rogers's Account of Xorth America (London, 1765), in allud- 

 ing to the wampum of the Indians, he says: "When they solicit the 

 alliance, offensive or defensive, of a whole nation, they send an embassy 

 with a large belt of icampum and a bloody hatchet, inviting them to 

 come and drink the blood of their enemies. The wampum made use of 

 on these and other occasions, before their acquaintance with the Euro- 

 peans, was nothing but small shells, which they picked up by the sea- 

 coast and on the banks of the lakes ; and now it is nothing but a kind 

 of cylindrical beads, made of shells, white and black, which are es- 

 teemed among them as silver and gold are among us. They have the 

 art of stringing, twisting, and interweaving them into their belts, collars, 

 blankets, moccasins, etc., in ten thousand different sizes, forms, and 

 figures, so as to be ornaments for every part of dress, and expressive 

 to them of all their important transactions. 



"They dje the wampum of various colors and shades, and mix and 

 dispose them with great ingenuity and order, so as to be significant 

 among themselves of almost everything they please ; so that by these 

 their words are kept and their thoughts communicated to one another, 

 as ours by writing. The belts that pass from one nation to another in 

 all treaties, declarations, and important transactions, are very carefully 

 preserved in the cabins of their chiefs, and serve not only as a kind of 

 record or history, but as a public treasure. 



"According to the Indian conception these belts could tell, by means 

 of an interpreter, the exact rule, provision, or transaction talked into 

 them at the time, and of which they were the exclusive record. A strand 

 of wampum consisting of purple and white shell beads, or a belt woven 

 with figures formed by beads of different colors, operated on the prin- 

 ciple of associating a particular fact with a particular string or figure; 

 thus giving a serial arrangement to the facts as well as fidelity to the 

 memory. These strands and belts were the only visible records of the 

 Iroquois; but they required those trained interpreters who could draw 

 from their strings and figures [the acts and intentions] locked up in 

 their remembrance."* 



After the defeat of the great chief Philip of the TTampanoags, Ana- 

 wan, the most trusted warrior, counselor, and friend of Philip, went 

 out quietly, brought the three or four wampum scarfs — splendid in his 

 eyes — and gave them to his conqueror. The trinkets were not only 

 valuable in themselves, they also symbolized and embodied a complete 

 submission to the more mighty men whose prowess had prevailed over 

 the Indians. The largest scarf, 9 inches wide, pictured with birds and 

 beasts and flowers, when laid over the shoulders of the sturdy Rhode 

 Islander, swept his ankles. Another belt designed for the head carried 

 two flags attached to it. Governor Winslow in his letter to the King, 

 accompanying the spoils of Philip, speaks of them as "being his 

 Crowne, his Gorge and two Belts of their own making of their goulde 



* Morgan, Ancient Society. 



