Shee | inal) 
eee ee rk, a eee 
1883.] Wampum and its History. 479 
Powers thinks an average of $100 worth to each male Indian 
would not be too large an estimate for California at the time of its 
discovery by the Spaniards. This portion equals the value of two 
grizzly bear skins, or three ponies, or the price of two wives. 
However it was not equally distributed any more than are riches 
in civilized communities—a point for communists to consider. 
The shore tribes were the coiners of this money and jealously 
guarded their privileges. With it they bought skins, arms and 
implements from the dwellers in the Coast Range, where grew 
animals and materials not to be obtained along the beach. The 
mountaineers, in turn, disseminated it far in the interior, where 
finally the beads were prized and worn as ornaments, and ceased 
to circulate. Moreover, an enormous waste and destruction was 
always going on (a fact also true of the Atlantic coast) owing to 
the practice of propitiatory sacrifices, and the widespread custom 
of burying or burning all the wealth with each man (or noted 
woman) who died. Thus the demand was always greater than 
the supply, and a high value maintained. It is astonishing to read 
how shrewd and thrifty the Indians were in respect to this shell 
coinage. When Americans grew numerous and began to manu- 
facture large quantities of the kawok, of course its value declined; 
Moreover, with the partial civilization of the Indians, a new senti- 
ment crept in, and some strange changes in primitive social econ- 
omy followed. 
i At present the younger English-speaking Indians scarcely use 
n at all, except in a few dealings with their elders, like wife-buy- 
mg, or for gambling. A young fellow sometimes. procures it as 
an investment, laying away a few strings of it, for he knows that 
cannot squander it at the stores; whereas if he really needs a 
-few dollars of current cash he can always “ negotiate” his shells 
kay some old Indian who happens to have gold or greenbacks. 
ericans speculate in it here and there to advantage, working 
pog the clinging love the aged savages retain for the wealth of 
youth. These old men save all of it they can possibly 
acquire, and hoard it like veritable misers, only on great occa- 
“ons letting their women-folk wear any as jewelry. This hoard- 
‘ng is not so much miserly greed, however, as it is a religious 
stig since to their minds the shell-money is the only thing 
orthy to be offered upon the funeral pyre of any famous chief or 
èd friend, or sent along with their own souls into the spirit- 
