Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/146

 118 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [August, " story. * * Its dimensions are greater " than of those used on more ordinary " occasions, of which we have one still " in our possession." [This smaller belt is probably the voucher of the treaty of 1701.] This second belt is twenty-eight inches long, two and one-half broad, and consists of eight strings of wampum ; the ground white, with five figures or diagrams in violet-colored beads worked upon it, three of a diamond-shape, and two of a zig-zag pattern between, at equi-distance from each other. The belt presented is of the largest size, and made with the neatest work- manship, generally found in such as are known to have been used at councils, or in making treaties with the Indians. Its length is twenty -six inches, its breadth nine inches, and it consists of eighteen strings [of wampum], woven together upon deer sinews. It is formed wholly of small beads, one-quarter of an inch long and one-eighth of an inch wide, and made from pieces of clam or muscle- shells. These give an entirely white ground ; in the centre there is a rude but striking representation, worked in dark violet beads, of an Indian, known ~-by his slender frame and bare head, shaking hands with a European, identi- fied from his heavier build and the hat on his head, and both full-length and erect. There are three violet bands, also, one at either end, the other about one-third the distance from each end. These bands may have reference to the number of parties to the treaty, or to the three rivers, Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna ; but the preferable supposition is, that the narrow, broken, and imperfect band at one end is the state and path of the Indian ; the broad, perfect, straight band the condition and way of the white man, and the interme- diate, partly broad, partly narrow, band, is the conjoined course of both races. The existence of such a belt as this is proof that a solemn council was held, and matters of great moment decided upon. The squaws are very dexterous in weaving the symbolic ideas of their lords of the wilderness into belts. Only strings of wampum are given at the special points of a speech. When a belt of wampum is given, few words are spoken ; but they are of the utmost importance, conveying merely the cen- tral idea of the council, at the perora- tion of the opening side, or just before the meeting breaks up. The answer given to a speech, thus accompanied, must be confirmed by strings and belts of wampum, of the same size and num- ber, as those received. If Sir Walter Scott did not err in almost adoring the regalia of the Scot- tish kings, surety we may keep and cherish this relic with as sincere and more rational devotion. — Charles Mi- ner, of Wilkesbarre.* And now, after the lapse of more than one hundred and fifty j'ears, [five human generations and seven kingly,] we have the event portrayed in the rude but expressive picture hy a native coeval with the transaction. — Thos. P. Sergeant.* Here we must indulge ourselves with a quotation from the elegant diction of Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, in response to Granville J. Penn, Esq., the more espe- cially as it embodies, in the "nine links" of the Hon. Patrick Gordon, which we intended to present else- where, but have not, all we are ever likely to know of the details of Penn's Treaty. " When, many years after this solemn meeting, the Indians heard of the death of William Penn, they mourned with the deepest grief the loss of their beloved father, protector and friend. Though he had been long absent from the province, they believed that it Avas his watchful care which had maintained, in good faith, the early pledges of jus-
 * Letters ou the Wampum Belt.