IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



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APPENDIX D 



THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF WAMPUM 1 



Among Mrs Converse's correspondence I find the following letter from 

 General Parker. It is evidently a reply to one of her inquiries, editor 



New York, July 9, 1885 

 Yours of the 8th received. There are several legendary tales 

 concerning wampum floating confusedly through my brain, and 

 belonging to various Indian tribes, but you desire the Iroquois 

 general legend. I use the word general because each tribe has 

 tales of its own varying from the general one, related in rehearsing 

 the origin of the great league. It is very simple and is told as 

 follows. 



Hy-ent-wat-ha, an Onondaga, failing to enlist To-do-do-ha, also 

 Onondaga, as an associate to perfect the league left the council 

 fire, which had been evoked by his persuasions, and journeyed 

 toward the rising sun and thus journeying he came to a beautiful 

 lake (supposed to be the Oneida) which he was compelled to cross 

 in a canoe. In passing over the lake he noticed that the blades of 

 his paddles brought up from the bottom quantities of white and 

 purple shells. Upon landing, he further observed that the shores 

 were lined with a great abundance of them. I am not conchologist 

 enough to designate what species of mollusks these shells belonged 

 to but they were gasteropodous. 



Hy-ent-wat-ha, being a wise man, at once bethought him how 

 to use these shells to advantage. So he gathered a large quantity, 

 filling his traveling pouches, and in the occasional rests of his 

 journeyings he made a belt out of the shells representing a pic- 

 torial history of the league. The foundation of the belt was white 

 and the pictorials purple. There stood the five cantons and the 

 five brothers in front with joined hands in token of brotherly 

 union. He also made a large number of strings, each string repre- 

 senting some law or fundamental principle of the league. Before 

 reaching the country of the Mohawks, the keepers of the western 

 door at Albany, he had every idea and principle of the league per- 

 fectly formulated in these belts and strings. Thus he reached the 

 Mohawk country armed, we may say, cap-a-pie with every idea, 

 principle and ceremony required for a perfect league of wild, un- 



1 This legend was published in a small handbook issued by the Regents at the ceremony 

 of the passing of the wampum belts to the State in 1898. 



