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fined ornaments confift of them. In a word, they 

 entertain the fame notion of them that we do of gold, 

 filver, ftid precious ftones ; in which they are fo 

 much the more reafonable, as in a manner they have 

 only to (loop to procure riches as real as ours, for 

 all that depends upon opinion. James Cartier in 

 his memoirs makes mention of a fhell of an un- 

 common fhape, which he found, as he fays, in the 

 ifland of Montreal ; he calls it Efurgni, and affirms 

 it had the virtue of Hopping a bleeding at the nofe. 

 Perhaps, it is the fame we are now fpeaking of ; 

 but they are no longer to be found in the idand of 

 Montreal, and I never heard of any but the Ihells 

 of Virginia which had the property Cartier fpeaks 

 of. 



There are two forts of thefe fhells, or to fpeak 

 more properly two colours, one white and the other 

 violet. The firft is mod common, and perhaps, 

 on that account lefs efleemed. The fecond feems 

 to have a finer grain when it is wrought ; the deeper 

 its colour is, the more it is valued. Small cylin- 

 drical grains are made of both, which are bored 

 through and ftrung upon a thread, and of thefe the 

 branches and collars of Porcelain or Wampum are 

 made. The branches are no more than four or five 

 threads, or fmall ftraps of leather, about a foot in 

 length, on which the grains or beads of Wampum 

 are ftrung. The collars are in the manner of fillets 

 or diadems formed of thefe branches, fewed toge- 

 ther with thread, making four, five, fix or feven 

 rows of beads, and of a proportionable length ; all 

 which depends on the importance of the affair in. 

 agitation, and dignity of the perfon to whom the, 

 collar is prefented. 



By 



