FOOTNOTES:
[1] Trumbull in his notes in the Narragansett Club Reprint of Roger Williams's Key, says: "Wom pam was the name of the white beads collectively; when strung or wrought in girdles they constituted wanôm-peg [Roger Williams], the wampon-peage of Wood and other early writers."
Peage or peake signified simply "strung beads," and wampom-peage accordingly signified "strings of white beads."
The English were doubtless led to consider wampum a generic word, because they heard it oftenest used, wampum being much more abundant than suckáuhock. Their error has however long since received the sanction of usage. But as far as our own knowledge extends there was no comprehensive word for all shell beads in use among the Indians. Sewan had perhaps very nearly such a use in certain localities, but the real meaning of the word sewan appears from the following note in the Narragansett Club Reprint of Roger Williams's Key:—"Seahwhóog, 'they are scattered' [Elliot]. From this word the Dutch traders gave the name of sewared or zeewand [the participle, seahwhóun, 'scattered,' 'loose'], to all shell money just as the English called all peage, or string beads, by the name of the white or wampom."
[2] Sometimes from the Buccinum undulatum [Möll], found from Nantucket to Labrador, and occasionally perhaps from the Natica heros [Say] found from New York to Labrador, and the Natica duplicata found from Florida to Massachusetts Bay.
In this connection the writer would acknowledge his indebtedness to Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, a gentleman who has given much time and talent to the investigation of matters of Indian history.
[3] Many writers have asserted that wampum was worked out of the inside of the Great Conque shell. This view is evidently erroneous, as the Great Conque, Strombus gigas [Linn.], is not found on the Atlantic coast, north of Florida and the West Indies, except in the fossil state.
The assertion that wampum is an Iroquois word, meaning a "muscle," is doubtless equally unfounded.
Roger Williams [Key, chap. xxiv], who certainly had fine opportunities for observation, and our other most trustworthy authorities, state that the Suckáuhock was made from the clam shell, and the wampum from the shells of the Periwinkle, and such was unquestionably the case.
[4] Roger Williams's Key, chap. xxiv.