[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] In these various cases the arrangement of the colors and the tigures of the belts corresponded to the object in view : on peaceable occasions the white color predominated; if the complications were of a serious character, the dark prevailed; and in case of a declaration of war, it is stated, the belt was entirely of a somber hue, and, moreover, covered with red paint, while there appeared in the middle the figure of a hatchet executed in white. The old accounts, however, are not quite accordant concerning these details, probably because the different Atlantic tribes followed in this particular their own taste rather than a general rule. At any rate, however, the wampum belts were considered as objects of importance, being, as has been stated, the tokens by which the memory of remarkable events was transmitted to posterity. They were employed somewhat in the manner of the Peruvian guipu, which they also resembled in that particular, that their mean-ing could not be conveyed without oral comment. At certain times the belts were exhibited, and their relations to former occurrences explained. This was done by the aged and experi-enced of the tribe, in the presence of the young men, who made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the shape, size, and marks of the belts, as well as with the events they were destined to commemorate, in order to be able to transmit these details to others at a future time. Thus the wampum belts represented the archives of polished nations.