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

early use

The white was wrought out of the conch. Each kind was pillar of the periwinkle. converted into a kind of bead, by being rounded and perforated, so as to admit of being strung on a fibre of deer's sinew, This was replaced linen thread.

after the discovery, by

The article was highly prized

as an ornament, and as

such constituted an

object of traffic between the sea coast and the interior tribes. It was worn around the

neck ; also as an edging for certain pieces of their garments; and when these strings were united, they formed the broad wampum belts by which solemn public transactions were commemorated. As a substitute for gold and silver coin, its price was fixed by law. Three purple beads of

wampum, or six of "white, were equal to a stuyver

among

among

the

the Dutch, or

English.

a

penny

Some

variations, however, existed in its value, according to