Their domestic implements were of very rude construc Fire answered them many purposes and gained for them

uniform. tion.

the name of Fireworkers.

By it they not only cleared lands, but Some

shaped their log canoes and made their wooden bowls.

of their arrows were of elegant construction and tipped with copper, and when shot with power would pass through the body

The more rifle. common arrows were tipped with flint, as well as their spears,

of a deer as certainly as the bullet from the

and required no

little

patience and skill in their construction.

When they came to obtain guns from the Dutch they were remarkably expert with them. Their money consisted of white and black zewant (wampum), 1

which was " nothing more nor less than the inside little pillars of the conch shells " which the sea cast up twice a year. These

pillars they polished smooth, drilled a hole through the centre, reduced them to a certain size, and strung them on threads.

Gold, silver or copper coins they had none. Their standards of value were the hand or fathom of wampum, and the denotas or bags which they made themselves for measuring and pre Such was their currency and such their only serving corn.

commercial transactions.

To obtain wampum they made war

and took captives for whom they demanded ransom, or made the weaker tribes tributaries to the stronger.

There were two kinds of wampum in

by the Indians, as a standard of value, the purple or black and the white, The purple was made from the interior portions of the vcnus mercenaria, or common