with other tribes. As this money was made from seashells—the word wampumpeag signifying a mussel in the Iroquois language—it was doubtlessly difficult for tribes living inland to secure material to work with. Nevertheless David saw much of it and many marvelous examples of the curious and even beautiful shapes into which it was wrought: those of birds and animals and flowers. In color it was usually black or white, the black being of slightly more value, but there were also many shades between; purple, blue, brown, yellow, and pink. By combining the various colors and shades the beads were often made into wonderful patterns on belts, necklaces, bracelets, ear-links, and other ornaments. Woosonametipom when royally bedecked wore a head-dress of wampum as well as a broad and long girdle which went twice about his body and ended in a fringe of deer-hair dyed red.
When the second week of David’s captivity had merged into a third, the village was one morning aroused from its placidness by the appearance of three strange Indians. Their approach had been signalled from afar, and by the time they were crossing the open space between forest and village many
