Wam’pum, n.

(wŏm’pum) (Synop., §130), n. [Ind. wampum, wompam, from the Mass. wōmpi, Del. wāpe, white.] Small beads made of shells, used by the North American Indians as money, and also wrought into belts, &c., as an ornament.

The wampum was of two kinds, one kind being white, and the other black or of a dark purple color. “It consisted of cylindrical pieces of the shells of testaceous fishes, a quarter of an inch long, and in diameter less than a pipe-stem, drilled lengthwise so as to be strung upon a thread. The beads of a white color, rated at half the value of the black or violet, passed each as the equivalent of a farthing in transactions between the natives and the planters.” Palfrey.