WAMPUM,

A PAPER PRESENTED TO
The Numismatic and Antiquarian Society
OF PHILADELPHIA.

By

ASHBEL WOODWARD, M.D.,

OF FRANKLIN, CONN.,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER.

ALBANY, N. Y.:
J. MUNSELL, PRINTER.
1878.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1878,
by ASHBEL WOODWARD,
in the Library of Congress.

At a Stated Meeting of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, held January 2, 1868, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society are due and are hereby tendered to Ashbel Woodward, M.D., of Franklin, Conn., for his very able and interesting research upon "Wampum" this evening read before the Society.

Resolved, That said paper be referred to the Publication Committee.

Attest,

Henry Phillips, Jr.,
Corresponding Secretary.

NOTE.

The following pages constitute an Essay read before the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia in January 1868. It was intended for publication in the second volume of the Transactions of the Society, but as the appearance of this volume has been unexpectedly delayed, it has been thought best to allow the Essay to appear separately.

Franklin, Conn., January, 1878.

WAMPUM.

When Columbus, on his second voyage to the New World, landed upon Cape Cabron, Cuba, the cacique of the adjacent country meeting him upon the shore offered him a string of beads made of the hard parts of shells as an assurance of welcome. Similar gifts were often made to the great discoverer, whenever the natives sought to win his favor or wished to assure him of their own good will. These shell beads were afterwards found to be in general use among the tribes of the Atlantic coast. At the close of the sixteenth century the English colonists found them in Virginia, as did the Dutch at the commencement of the following century in New York, the English in New England and the French in Canada. The pre-historic inhabitants of the Mississippi valley were also evidently acquainted with their manufacture, as remains of shell beads have been found in many of the mounds which survive as the only memorials of that mysterious people.

These Indian beads were known under a variety of names among the early colonists, and were called, wampum, wampom-peage, or wampeage, frequently peage or peake only, and in some localities sewan or zewand. But generally sewan prevailed among the Dutch, and wampum among the English. These names were applied without distinction to all varieties of beads. This confusion arose naturally enough from the scanty acquaintance of the whites with the Indian language. The word wampum [wompam],[1] which has since become a general term, was restricted by the Indians to the white beads. It was derived from wompi, "white." The other or dark beads were called suckáuhock, a name compounded of súcki, "dark colored," and hock, "shell." The name Mowhakes, compounded of mowi, "black," and hock, "shell," was also sometimes applied to the dark beads. It thus appears that the Indians divided their beads into two general classes, the wompam, or white beads, and suckáuhock, or dark beads. Both white and black consisted of highly polished, testaceous cylinders, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch long, drilled length-wise and strung upon fibres of hemp or the tendons of wild beasts. Suckáuhock was made from the stem of the Venus mercenaria, or common round clam, popularly known as the quauhaug; wampum from the column and inner whorls of the Pyrula carica and Pyrula caniculata[2] [Lam.], species known as Winkles or Periwinkles among fishermen, and the largest convoluted shells of our New England coast.[3] These shells were found in great abundance along the sea shore, lying either upon the mud, or just beneath the surface, and were wrought in the following manner. The desirable portions of the shells were first broken out into small pieces of the form of a parallelopiped; these were then drilled and afterwards ground and polished. Possessing no better tools, the Indians made shift to bore them with stone drills,[4] implements which hardly correspond with the delicacy and exactness exhibited by the specimens of original wampum that have come down to us. The process of polishing and shaping was equally painful and laborious, for rubbing with the hand over a smooth stony surface, was the only method which the rudeness of the Aborigines could devise. Yet the finished beads, whether attached in thick masses to garments, or strung in long flexible rows, were very comely and without a trace of the tawdriness, which is so characteristic of uncivilized peoples. The suckáuhock with its varying shades of purple was particularly beautiful. Its value was double that of the white and the darker its color, the more highly it was prized. But the laborious method of production imparted no trivial value to both varieties.

It seems almost incredible that the Indian could produce so clever an article with his rude implements. Some have conjectured that the specimens produced before the natives obtained awl blades from the colonists were very inferior to their later productions. One writer[5] even goes so far as to suggest, that, before the advent of Europeans, Indian beads consisted mostly of small pieces of wood, stained white or black. The fact is, however, that the manufacture of wampum dates back at least to the time of the mound builders, for quantities of beads similar in form to the more modern article, and proved by chemical tests and structural peculiarities to be similar in material, have been exhumed from the ancient mounds of the west.[6]

Other species besides the wampum and suckáuhock crept into local use among the different tribes. The Iroquois in their civil and religious ceremonies employed a variety named otekóa, and made from spiral fresh water shells of the genus