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Webster 1913 Edition

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Noun.

The name used by the Algonquin Indians for the shell beads which passed among the Indians as money.

☞

Seawan

was of two kinds;

wampum

, white, and

suckanhock

, black or purple, – the former having half the value of the latter. Many writers, however, use the terms

seawan

and

wampum

indiscriminately.

Bartlett.