Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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hell clam, Venusmercenaria, from which white beads were also produced. Thedrilling and polishing of such beads cost innnense labour.They were called ivampum, served largely as a currency, and weremade up into necklaces and belts, the purple l^eads being themore valuable (fig. 27). Wami^um belts were exchanged as symbolsof peace after the conclusion of hostilities, or were treasurijd up inthe tribe to commemorate particular episodes of tribal history.Significant figures of men, peace-pipes, &c., were worked inwhite on purple, or vice versa, and the tribal Keepers of theWampum were acquainted with the meaning of every belt.A well-known wami)um belt, given to William Penn, founderof Pennsylvania, when he made a treaty with the Indians 270 AMERICA in 1682, is now preserved in Philadelphia. A wampum beltin the collection is identified as having been made by Iroquois,on account of the diagonal purple bands which are said torepresent the sloping rafters of an Iroquois house. Machine-made
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Fig. 252. — Moose-antlercomb from New England,U.S.A. (Sloane Collection,1753.)

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