322 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



rial," but he is not positive of that except among the Nishinam [Maidu]. 

 Here it is made from the heavy shells of a bivalve, a ponderous clam 

 when adult, of very compact texture, peculiar to the southern coast of 

 California ; abundant at Morro or Estero Bay and other places south- 

 ward to San Diego. This is cut into circular pieces of the diameter as 

 shown in the annexed figures, or even smaller, the thickness of the 

 pieces varying with the thickness of the shells, or of that portion of the 

 valve from which the disks are made. The larger pieces* (Figs. 11 and 

 12) of the value of twenty -five cents are cut from the thicker part of the 

 valves of large or adult clams of said species, and the smaller (Figs. 13 

 and 14) of the value of four cents each from the thinner portions. This 



Fig. 11. 

 Hawock or Ha-wok. 



Fig. 12. 

 Hawock or Ha-wok. 



Fig. 13. Fig. 14. 



Hawock or Ha-wok. Hawock or Ha-wok. 



money, of which the smaller pieces closely resemble the disk-shaped 

 beads of the natives of the Paumotu Islands in the South Pacific, except 

 in being of twice the diameter and thickness, is strung upon strings the 

 same as beads in a necklace, for which it is also used. Figs. 13 and 14 

 are the same in form and about the size of the pieces made from Saxi- 

 domus aratusj according to Yates, and in use among the Indian Pomos 

 [ Wailakki] of Lake County, f and probably by the neighboring Wintuns. 

 While on a collecting tour along the coast in the neighborhood of 

 Bodega, in 1867 or 1868, we were told by some of the old settlers there- 

 about that the Indians formerly visited this region for the purpose of 

 digging this particular species of clam. The meats were dried for food 

 purposes and the shells were used to make this form of money, which 

 is called hawock, according to Mr. Powers, though, as he says, different 

 tribes call it by different names and attach different values to it. He 

 says : " The Bear Biver Indians (Nceshenams) are the only ones I have 



* Similar disks were sometimes made by the Indians of the Atlantic side, as may be 

 seen by examining specimen 21618 in the National Museum, from Cocke County, 

 Tennessee ; probably cut out of a Busycon shell. 



+ = Saxidomus gracilis. A form closely related to the foregoing, Saxidomus nuttallii, 

 is used to a certain extent by the Indians in Washington Territory for making these 

 disk heads or money. They make two sizes of it, like the figures in this respect. S. 

 nultallii is a common clam in Pnget Sound. 



t Yates states the value of these small disks as being 80 for $1 among the Indians 

 of Lake County. 



