| 释义 |
peag, peak|piːg, piːk|
Also 7 peage, peauge, peacke.
[Orig. pē-ag, ad. Massachusetts Indian piak, pl. of pi (= Abnaki biak, bi), a strung bead of shell-money; found in wampumpeag (in Rasles Abnaki Dict. 1691 wanbanbi-ak); f. Massach. Ind. wompi (Delaware wapi) white + piak.]
Beads made from the ends of shells, rubbed down and polished, strung together into belts, necklaces, etc.; formerly used as a currency by the North American Indians; wampum.
Two qualities were distinguished, white peag (see wampumpeag) and black (or purple) peag, the latter being reckoned double the value of the former.
1649Rhode Isl. Col. Rec. (1856) I. 217 Noe person..shall take any black peage of the Indians but at four a penny. 1664Providence (R.I.) Records (1894) V. 305 He saw Scattup..receive a considerble Some of peauge of William Harris. 1676T. Glover in Phil. Trans. XI. 633 Their mony is of two sorts, one..made of a white kind of shell.., they put them on a string after the manner of Beads; this they call Peacke. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative 108 Having fetched out of a Swamp hard by,..a large Belt of Peag. 1705Beverley Hist. Virginia 58 The peak is of two sorts, or rather of two colours, for both are made of one shell, though of different parts;..the wampumpeak at eighteenpence the yard, and the white peak at ninepence. Ibid. iii. i. (1722) 141 Upon his Neck, and Wrists, hang Strings of Beads, Peak and Roenoke. 1832J. Durfee What Cheer iii. xxii, 'Tis not the peag, said the sagamore, Nor knives, nor guns, nor garments red as blood, That buy the lands I hold dominion o'er. 1875Jevons Money iv. 27 A foot of black peag being worth two feet of white peag. |