$ 1883.] Wampum and its History. 477 
were reckoned in blankets, as is now the case in many parts of 
Alaska and Arctic America. . 
South of the fur-trading posts, however, this money survived to 
a much later date, and is even yet to be seen in certain remote 
districts. “Those aboriginal peddlers, the Klikitats,” and other 
Columbians, carried it to southern Oregon and to the Klamath 
region year after year, whence it spread through all Northern Cal- 
ifornia, receiving there a new name, allo-cochick, and an alteration 
of estimate. The northern measure between the extended finger- 
tips was discarded on the Klamath river for a string scarcely half 
that length. Among the Hupas, still further southward, the - 
standard became a string of five shells. Nearly every man had 
ten lines tatooed across the inside of his left arm about half way 
between the wrist and the elbow; in measuring shell-money he 
| drew one end over his left thumb nail, and if the other end 
T reached to the uppermost of the tattoo-lines, the five shells (ten 
_ Years ago) were worth $25 in gold, or even more. Only one in 
: ten thousand would reach this distinction, so that the ordinary 
a Worth of a string was ten dollars. “ No shell is treated as money 
tall,” says Mr. Powers, “unless it is long enough to rate as 
_ twenty-five cents, Below that * * * it goes to form part of a 
i Mman's necklace. Real money is ornamented with little scratches 
‘Or carvings, and with very narrow strips of thin, fine, snake-skin 
Wrapped spirally around the shells ; and sometimes a tiny tuft of 
Scarlet woodpecker’s down is pasted on the base of the shell.” 
“Rese marks manifestly were designed to give the money some 
Ni of Sanction—make it represent somewhat the labor put upon 
with which it had to compete. | 
ata of the Eel river, and thence throughout all Central 
ee 
uthern California, the staple currency was a shell-money 
ea: ing the eastern wampum. Agua and allocochick were 
: op dig of some rarity, ground at the tip sufficiently to admit 
me & strung. The héwok and ülo of California were carefully 
they ay r and represented a real cost of labor and time, though 
Bee no intrinsic value. The two were of different shape 
Md value. 
The first-named, hawok, was of least worth, standing in the 
sisted i white wampum of the East or our silver. It con- 
Whole :, circular disks or buttons from a quarter of an inch to a 
, k in diameter, and of the thickness of the shell from 
eres Cut, For this purpose a heavy bivalve was chosen, 
