affaires d'une legere consequence. Les colliers sont de larges
ceintures, ou les petits cylindres blancs et pourpre sont disposes par
rangs et assujettes par de petites bandelettes de cuir, dont on fait un
tissu assez propre. Leur longeur, leur largueur et les grains de couleur
se proportionnent a l'importance de l'affaire. Les colliers communs et
ordinaires sont de onze rangs de cent quatre-vingt grains chacun. Le
fisc, ou le tresor public consiste principalement en ces sortes de
colliers.... Les sauvages n'ont rien de plus precieux que leur
Porcelaine: ce sont leurs bijoux, leurs pierreries. Ils en comptent
jusqu' aux grains, et cela leur tient lieu de toute richesse."--Lafitau,
1720.

Catlin writes thus in 1842: "Among the numerous tribes who have formerly
inhabited the Atlantic coast, wampum has been invariably manufactured
and highly valued as a circulating medium (instead of coins, of which
the Indians have no knowledge), so many strings, or so many hands'
breadth, being the fixed value of a horse, a gun, a robe, &c. It is a
remarkable fact, that after I passed the Mississippi I saw but very
little wampum used, and on ascending the Missouri, I do not recollect to
have seen it worn at all by the Upper Missouri Indians, although the
same materials for its manufacture are found in abundance in those
regions. Below the Lions and along the whole of our western frontier,
the different tribes are found loaded and beautifully ornamented with
it, which they can now afford to do, for they consider it of little
value, as the fur traders have ingeniously introduced an imitation of
it, manufactured by steam or otherwise, of porcelain or some composition
closely resembling it, with which they have flooded the whole Indian
country, and sold at so reduced a price as to cheapen, and consequently
destroy, the value and meaning of the original wampum, a string of which
can now but very rarely be found in any part of the country."--Catlin,
vol. i., p. 223.]

[Footnote 281: "Among the numerous shells which are found on the
sea-shore, there are some which by the English here are called clams,
and which bear some resemblance to the human ear. They have a
considerable thickness, and are chiefly white, excepting the pointed
end, which both within and without hath a blue color, between purple and
violet. The shells contain a large animal, which is eaten both by
Indians and Europeans. The shells of these clams are used by the Indians
as m