These Indian beads were known under a variety of names among the early colonists, and were called, _wampum_, _wampom-peage_, or _wampeage_, frequently _peage_ or _peake_ only, and in some localities _sewan_ or _zewand_. But generally sewan prevailed among the Dutch, and wampum among the English. These names were applied without distinction to all varieties of beads. This confusion arose naturally enough from the scanty acquaintance of the whites with the Indian language. The word wampum [wompam],[1] which has since become a general term, was restricted by the Indians to the white beads. It was derived from _wompi_, "white." The other or dark beads were called _suckauhock_, a name compounded of _sucki_, "dark colored," and _hock_, "shell." The name _Mowhakes_, compounded of _mowi_, "black," and _hock_, "shell," was also sometimes applied to the dark beads. It thus appears that the Indians divided their beads into two general classes, the _wompam_, or white beads, and _suckauhock_, or dark beads. Both white and black consisted of highly polished, testaceous cylinders, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch long, drilled length-wise and strung upon fibres of hemp or the tendons of wild beasts. _Suckauhock_ was made from the stem of the _Venus mercenaria_, or common round clam, popularly known as the quauhaug; _wampum_ from the column and inner whorls of the _Pyrula carica_ and _Pyrula caniculata_[2] [Lam.], species known as Winkles or Periwinkles among fishermen, and the largest convoluted shells of our New England coast.[3] These shells were found in great abundance along the sea shore, lying either upon the mud, or just beneath the surface, and were wrought in the following manner. The desirable portions of the shells were first broken out into small pieces of the form of a parallelopiped; these were then drilled and afterwards ground and polished. Possessing no better tools, the Indians made shift to bore them with stone drills,[4] implements which hardly correspond with the delicacy and exactness exhibited by the specimens of original wampum that have come down to us. The process of polishing and shaping was equally painful and laborious, for rubbing with the hand over a smooth stony surface, was the only method which the rudeness of the Aborigines could devise. Yet the finished beads, whether attached in thick masses to garments, or strung in long flexible rows, were very comely and without a trace of the tawdriness, which is so characteristic of uncivilized peoples. The suckauhock with its varying shades of purple was particularly beautiful. Its value was double that of the white and the darker its color, the more highly it was prized. But the laborious method of production imparted no trivial value to both varieties.