314 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887 



and silver." Gold it was not, coin it was not; but the governor cor- 

 rectly described it as " their gold." This quality gave it the attributes 

 of a currency in the growing intercourse with the colonists. It was this 

 quality, this costliness, which inrpressed the barbaric imagination and 

 made wampum a high symbol in every ceremouy, i>olitical or religious. 



Whenever the Indiaus made an important statement in their frequent 

 negotiations, they presented a belt to prove it, to give force to their 

 words. "The hatchet fixed in the head," one of the most forcible of 

 their many figures, expressing a sense of wrong, a legitimate grievance — 

 this hatchet must be removed by something more powerful than words. 

 A belt was presented to discharge the grievance, and not by mere pur- 

 chase. The value of the beads could hardly have been of consequence 

 to a haughty confederacy like the Iroquois or Five Nations. It marked 

 the gravity of the apology. It gave to the words the weight of hard 

 physical facts, and made the expression an emblem of great force and 

 significance.* 



It is not the object of this paper to present or consider the use of 

 shells or wampum beads for other purposes than money or a medium in 

 trade. As Mr. Holmest remarks in his elaborate memoir, "the litera- 

 ture of wampum would fill a volume." 



So, from a passing glance at the symbolic uses of wampum and the 

 important mnemonic use of these insignificant shell beads to the ancient 

 Americans of the Atlantic sea-board, we will cross the continent and 

 consider 



THE SHELL MONEY OF THE CALIFORNIA ABORIGINES. 



The use of shells for the purposes of money by the Indians of the 

 northwest coast of North America prevailed no doubt for a long time 

 before any members of the European races had any knowledge of the 

 aborigines of this portion of the continent. At the time of tbe earliest 

 contact of white men with the red men of the Pacific slope, shell money 

 w T as found to be in use, and the same forms have been obtained from 

 the graves and ancient burial places of the aborigines of California, etc. 



Our knowledge of the Indians of the west coast is, unfortunately, 

 exceedingly limited and indefinite. Limited in time, as we find when 

 we seek to trace back, prior to the date of the transfer of the territory 

 of what are termed the Pacific States to the United States, and indefi- 

 nite as to the minor features of the west coast Indians, in matters 

 which pertain or relate to their ordinary habits, customs, etc. 



Powers, referring to shell money, says : " Immense quantities of it 

 were formerly in circulation among the California Indians, and the 

 manufacture of it was large and constant to replace the continual 

 wastage * * * caused by the sacrifice of so much upon the death 

 of wealthy men, and by the propitiatory sacrifices performed by many 



* Weeden. 



i Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans, Ann. Kept. Bureau Ethnology, 1880-81. 



