March 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



AND SHELL-MONEY. 357 



sent to hostile tribes as the messenger of peace. Did fortune prove 

 adverse, then so many fathoms of wampum were paid as tribute to the 

 conquering tribe. Ninigret paid the English in two years about 1,100 

 fathoms of wampum (cir. 1650). Pometacom (a New England Indian, 

 cir. 1671) possessed a coat, band, and buskins " thick set with these 

 beads, in pleasant wild works," which were valued at 201. 



About 1650 a fathom of white wampum was worth rather more 

 than 5s. 7d., the purple representing double that sum. By number, six 

 white and three purple beads were equivalent to one penny English. 



Wampum is found in ancient graves in Western New York, in tumuli 

 of the West. It has been obtained from the plains of Sandusky, from 

 graves near Buffalo, and north of the Niagara river in Canada. Not less 

 than 1,700 of these shell beads were taken from one tumulus in Western 

 Virginia. 



Catlin observed that, after he had passed the Mississippi River, scarcely 

 any wampum was used ; he did not notice it at all among the Upper 

 Missouri Indians, very little among the Missouri Sioux, and none among 

 tribes north and west of them. Below the Sioux, and along the whole 

 of the western frontier of the United States, the use of wampum was 

 profuse. In tumuli in Tennessee, and in the Ohio Valley, wampum 

 occurs together with the raw material (the columella of the Strombus 

 gigas as found on the sea-coast) and all stages in the manufacture up to 

 the finished beads. 



Doubtless the tropical marine shells which have been found in 

 American tumuli, at considerable distances from their native habitat, 

 had been treasured by their owners during life for their rarity, and 

 were buried with the cherished belongings of the deceased. It is pro- 

 bable that they represented money, just as appears still to be the case 

 with certain marine shells in Central Africa. Strinte hung a string of 

 beads with the end of a cone-shell around Dr. Livingston's neck as a last 

 and convincing proof of his friendship. Two such shells would have 

 bought a slave, and five would have been a handsome price for an 

 elephant's tusk worth 10/. 



The value of the money cowry {Cyprcea moneta) appears to have 

 varied considerably — a variation which depended upon the supply of 

 shells, the distance they had to be transported, and the difficulties of 

 transit. Thus, in Bengal, eighty cowries made aporri, and from sixty to 

 sixty -five ponis (according to the scarcity or the abundance of cowries in 

 the country) were of the value of a rupee ; whilst in the interior of 

 Africa the value of the cowry was increased tenfold. 



If shells have served for money, they have also ministered to man's 

 wants, to his luxury, and to his pride in a thousand ways. I can but 

 enumerate a few instances : — The Cai ibs made knives, lances, and har- 

 poons from shells. The application of shells to the manufacture of 

 fish-hooks is well known ; the natives of Tahiti caught cuttle-fish with 

 a bait made from highly-coloured shells. Whilst many natives have 



