The author of an instructive treatise on k' Ancient and Aboriginal Trade in North America"1 (from which some of the details in the preceding pages are taken) says of the wampum belts, so often mentioned in connection with the history of the eastern tribes: Thev consisted of broad straps of leather, upon which white and blue wampum-beads were sewed In rows, being so arranged that by the contrast of the light and dark colors certain figures were produced. The Indians, it is well known, exchanged these belts at the conclusion of peace, and on other solemn occasions, in order to ratify the transaction, and to perpetuate the remembrance of the event. When sharp admonitions or threatening demonstrations were deemed necessary, the wampum belts likewise played a part, and they were even sent as challenges of war. In these various cases the arrangement of the colors and the tigures of the belts corresponded to the object in view : on peaceable occasions the white color predominated ; if the complications were of a serious character, the dark prevailed ; and in case of a declaration of war, it is stated, the belt was entirely of a somber hue, and, moreover, covered with red paint, while there appeared in the middle the figure of a hatchet executed in white. The old accounts, however, are not quite accordant concerning these details, probably because the different Atlantic tribes followed in this particular their own taste rather than a general rule. At any rate, however, the wampum belts were considered as objects of importance, being, as has been stated, the tokens by which the memory of remarkable events was transmitted to posterity. They were employed somewhat in the manner of the Peruvian guipu, which they also resembled in that particular, that their meaning could not be conveyed without oral comment.