The literature of wampum would fill a volume, but I forbear presenting more than will give an outline of the subject, confining myself to such quotations as will serve to show clearly the extent and importance of this ancient custom and its attendant practices.
The method of handling the belts of wampum in the presence of ceremonial assemblies is extremely interesting, and cannot be better presented than in the words of eye-witnesses.
The following is quoted from Brice, who is describing a council held in the Muskingum Valley in 1764:
"An Indian council, on solemn occasions, was always opened with preliminary forms, sufficiently wearisome and tedious, but made indispensable by immemorial custom, for this people are as much bound by their conventional usages as the most artificial children of civilization. The forms were varied, to some extent, according to the imagination of the speaker, but in all essential respects they were closely similar throughout the tribes of the Algonkin and Iroquois lineage.
"They run somewhat as follows, each sentence being pronounced with great solemnity, and confirmed by the delivery of a wampum belt: 'Brothers, with this belt I open your ears that you may hear; I remove grief and sorrow from your hearts; I draw from your feet the thorns that pierced them as you journeyed thither; I clean the seats of the council-house, that you may sit at ease; I wash your head and body, that your spirits may be refreshed; I condole with you on the loss of the friends who have died since we last met; I wipe out any blood which may have been spilt between us.' This ceremony, which, by the delivery of so many belts of wampum, entailed no small expense, was never used except on the most important occasions; and at the councils with Colonel Bouquet the angry warriors seem wholly to have dispensed with it. * * * And his memory was refreshed by belts of wampum, which he delivered after every clause in his harangue, as a pledge of the sincerity and truth of his words.
"These belts were carefully preserved by the hearers as a substitute for written records, a use for which they were the better adapted, as they were often worked in hieroglyphics expressing the meaning they were designed to preserve. Thus at a treaty of peace the principal belt often bore the figure of an Indian and a white man holding a chain between them."[96]
From an account of a council held by the Five Nations at Onondaga nearly two hundred years ago, to which the governor of Canada sent four representatives, I make the following extract: "During the course of the proceedings Cannehoot, a Seneca sachem, presented a proposed treaty between the Wagunhas and the Senecas, speaking as follows: 'We come to join the two bodies into one. * * * We come to learn wisdom of the Senecas (giving a belt). We by this belt wipe away the tears from the eyes of your friends, whose relations have been killed in the war. We likewise wipe the paint from your soldiers' faces (giving a second belt). We throw aside the ax which Yonondio put into our hands by this third belt.' A red marble sun is presented—a pipe made of red marble. 'Yonondio is drunk; we wash our hands clean from his actions (giving a fourth belt). * * * We have twelve of your nation prisoners; they shall be brought home in the spring (giving a belt to confirm the promise). We will bring your prisoners home when the strawberries shall be in blossom, at which time we intend to visit Corlear (the governor of New York), and see the place where wampum is made.'
"The belts were accepted by the Five Nations, and their acceptance was a ratification of the treaty. A large belt was also given to the messengers from Albany as their share. A wampum belt sent from Albany was, in the same manner, hung up and afterwards divided."[97]
This indicates a most extravagant use of belts; but since it is probable that as many were received in return this was a matter of little importance. The great profusion of wampum used in some of the later treaties is a matter of surprise. In a council held between four Indian ambassadors from New England and the French thirty-six fine large belts were given by the ambassadors to thank them that their people had not been treated with hostility.[98]
"The appendix to the second volume of Proud's History of Pennsylvania contains the journals of Frederick Christian Post, who was sent by Governor Denny, in 1758, to make a treaty with the Alleghany Indians; and in delivering the governor's answer to the chiefs, on his second visit in the same year, after proposing to them to unite in a treaty of peace which had lately been concluded with the Indians at Easton, and producing sundry belts, one of which was marked with figures representing the English and the Indians delivering the peace-belt to one of the commissioners, he proceeds to say: 'Brethren on the Ohio, if you take the belts we just now gave you, as we do not doubt you will, then by this belt'—producing another and using their figurative style of speech—'I make a road for you, and invite you to come to Philadelphia, to your first old council-fire, which we rekindle up again, and remove disputes, and renew the first old treaties of friendship. This is a clear and open road for you; therefore, fear nothing, and come to us with as many as can be of the Delawares, Shawanese, or the Six Nations; we will be glad to see you; we desire all tribes and nations of Indians who are in alliance with you may come.' Whereupon a large white belt, with the figure of a man at each end and streaks of black representing the road from the Ohio to Philadelphia, was then given to them."[99]