470 Wampum and its History. [ May, 
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 muscular attachment—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. 
In descriptions of it we meet with a new list of terms and addi- 
tional confusion. It was worth, on the average, twice as much as 
the white variety ; and the latter was frequently dyed to counter- 
feit it. Moreover, Loskiel is authority for the statement that the 
natives of the New Jersey coast “used to make their strings of 
wampum chiefly of small pieces of wood of equal size, stained 
either black or white.” These were held far inferior to shell- 
beads of either color; but I know of no other example of this 
species of counterfeiting or substitution. 
In New England Roger Williams describes this superior money 
as follows : “ The second is black, inclining to blue, which is made 
of the shell of a fish which some English call Hens, Poguaihock: 
This money, he says, was called “ Suckéubock! (Súcki signifying 
blacke).” Josselyn gives mohaicks as the Connecticut word. 
Among the Dutch on the Hudson river (and frequently elsewhere) 
seawant was the usual term, and they spoke of it as black or 
white. There the various shades of blue, purple and dull black 
found separate names, but made no change in value. In notices 
of it among the early writers, whose carelessness is apparent, the 
words wampum, wompam, wompom, wampampeege, wampumpeage 
wampeage, peage, peag, wampum peak, mohaicks, suckauhock, < 
wan, seawant, roenoke, ronoak and others occur. Seawant e 
to have been properly a generic term indicating any and allen 
of shell money; wampum was often used thus and is pie | 
used altogether ; but originally it seems to have meant the p 
beads alone, while the words peag (in its various forms), me Vit- 
hock and mohaitks represented the black. In Beverly pas : 
ginia,” however, this is precisely reversed, which leads us t0 wes 
that the author made a mistake; southern writers unite IN pg 
peak generic, while roenoke is a word unknown at the M 
All of these terms are misspelled derivatives from roots M l 
- 1 Misprint for suckaužock. oe 
2“ Roanoke (a small kind of beades) made of oyster shells, which ae Haris 
one to another, as we doe money (a cubites length valuing s!* pence oo 
(1614), p. 41. For “a bushel” of these Powhatan sold his daugther: 
