Sea"wan (?), Sea"want (?), n.

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.

 

© Webster 1913.