Wampum Wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of American Indians. It includes the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and the white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. It was used by the northeastern Indian tribes as a form of gift exchange, and the colonists adopted it as currency in trading with them. Eventually, the colonists developed more efficient methods of producing wampum, which caused inflation and ultimately its obsolescence as currency. Wampum was often kept on strings like Chinese cash. Before European
Worry beads roll them against each other, creating soft clicking sounds. Worry beads can be a musical instrument, related to rebetiko. Sound is emitted using a drinking glass and rubbing the lip against the worry bead, which is suspended from one button. It is also superstition in certain Greek communities that husbands-to-be, on their wedding night, will perform a "worry bead ritual" involving rapid back-and-forth movement of all beads. This is meant to ensure sexual fulfilment (συνουσία, "synousía"), on the wedding night and during the following honeymoon period. Worry beads Worry beads or kombolói, kompoloi (, , "bead collection"; plural: , )