File:Ontario Sessional Papers, 1905, No.11-14 (1905) (14763514305).jpg

Identifier: n04ontariosession37ontauoft (find matches)
Title: Ontario Sessional Papers, 1905, No.11-14
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: ONTARIO. LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
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Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: Ontario Council of University Libraries and Member Libraries

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raves he opened, but ithas been put together neatly, and, for two lost portions, plaster ofparis has been substituted. This gorget is remarkable in havingeight holes near the middle—something quite unusual. It has alsohad two holes bored near the margin at the extremities of the longeraxis. As with all other Canadian shell specimens there is not avestige of carving on the concave surface. Wampum Strings. The uses of beads were as various as were as their shapes, andthe kinds of material of which they were made. Perhaps the orig-inal purpose was a mnemonic one. The carrying of records on theperson would suggest the decorative use, followed by their employ-ment as pledges in bargain-making, and, lastly, as a medium of ex-change. For a long time the natives of this country preferred shell mon-ey to European coinage, and the white man soon produced wampum,or wampumpeage, with the aid of simple machinery, in such quanti-ties that the value decreased rapidly. 1904 ARCH^OLOGICAL REPORT. 47
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Fig 73 (27,008) a little over ^ dia 48 ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORT The accompanying illustration shows twelve strings of white-man-make wampum, each string being a foot in length, and consist-ing of small cylindrical beads, some white and some purple, madefrom a bivalve (a mussel) specimens of which are found on the At-lantic coast, having portions, or even the whole, of the interior, adark purple. String combinations of this kind were not at all uncommon,according to a statement made to me by the late Ska-na-wa-ti, whowas for so many years the Six Nation Firekeeper, according to whom,also, for this method preceded that of forming the beads into belts, byuniting the strings. As long as the beads were loosely strung the records must havebeen purely arbitrary as to arrangement, and, therefore, quite un-intelligible to any but the Firekeeper and those who were instructedby him. In belt form, however, there was room to advance a fewsteps, for by this method something was possible by way of maki

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