One of the most remarkable customs practiced by the American Indians is found in the mnemonic use of wampum. This custom had in it a germ of great promise, one which must in time have become a powerful agent in the evolution of art and learning. It was a nucleus about which all the elements of culture could arrange themselves. I shall not at present undertake to divest the custom of adventitious features such as have been introduced by contact with European influence. Yet there is no reason to fear that any of the important or essential features have been derived from outside sources. It is not possible from any known records to demonstrate the great antiquity of this use of wampum. It does not seem probable, however, that a custom so unique and so wide-spread could have grown up within the historic period; nor is it probable that a practice foreign to the genius of tradition-loving races could have become so well established and so dear to their hearts in a few generations. Mnemonic records are known to have come into use among many nations at a very early stage of culture. Picture writing as developed in the north is but another form of mnemonic record, a fact, a thought, a verse of a song being associated with an ideographic design, more or less suggestive of the subject. The Peruvians had their _quipus_, in which the record was made by associating things to be remembered with knots made in cords of different colors, each combination having a fixed association. The Mexicans had gone further and had achieved a system of picture writing that was very unique and curious, in which a phonetic element had already made its appearance, while the Mayas could boast the discovery of a true phonetic system with an alphabet of twenty-seven sounds. The mnemonic use of wampum is one which, I imagine, might readily develop from the practice of gift giving and the exchange of tokens of friendship, such mementos being preserved for future reference as reminders of promises of assistance or protection. In time the use of such mementos would develop into a system capable of recording affairs of varied and complicated nature; particular facts or features of treaties would be assigned to particular objects, or portions of objects. With this much accomplished, but one step was necessary to the attainment of a hieroglyphic system--the permanent association of a single object or sign with a particular idea.