WAMPUM, SEAWAN, PEAG or SHELL MONEY, a fabric bearing beads formed of the interior of shells, arranged in patterns or designs, formerly much used by North Ameri can Indians as a medium of exchange among the Indians of the Atlantic Seaboard States. Not merely did it serve the Indian as a medium of exchange and a standard of values, but worn as an ornament it was his badge of wealth and position, in the hands of the chiefs his record book and ledger, and through the favor of the Great Spirit its possession became in no small degree the passport to the happy hunting grounds of the future world. The use of wampum constituted a bond of union among the Indians such as was scarcely supplied by language, religion or racial customs. Wampum was made from shells, usually clam or oyster, and it was therefore not surprising that the coast dwellers were the most prolific producers of it. The bladc beads were made from the dark (eye( of the shell, the scar indicating the point of muscular attachment, while the white ones were taken from the outer parts. Black beads were lcnown as sacici, white ones as wompi, and the black were usually considered twice as valuable as the white. Purple beads
were also used. The fabrics were made up as belts, necklaces, bracelets and occasionally as scabbards. The beads themselves were simply little shell cylinders about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and one-fourth of an inch in length. They were polished smooth by being rubbed against stones, and were bored by means of a flint awl, many of which are still to be found in the shell heaps along the New Eng land Coast. The Engltsh colonists were com pelled to use wampum as a medium of ex change with the Indians for more than half a century. Three dark or six white beads were swapped for an English penny. Rhode Island recognized it officially as late as 1670. In New York it was used until after the end of the cen tury— as for instance in the payment of the ferriage between New York and Brooklyn. It was used in Southern Connecticut as late as 1704, and in the backwoods regions of the northern and middle colonies well down into the 18th century.