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 Worry beads Worry beads or kombolói, kompoloi (, , "bead collection"; plural: , ) is a string of beads manipulated with one or two hands and used to pass time in Greek and Cypriot culture. Unlike the similar prayer beads used in many religious traditions, worry beads have no religious or ceremonial purpose. Modern Greek κομπολόι is derived from κομβολόγιον < κόμβος "knot" + -λόγιο "collection". It is sometimes said that it is short for the phrase "σε κάθε κόμπο προσευχή λέω", "in every knot I say a prayer"- "κόμπο" "knot"-"λέω" "say" > κόμπο-λέω > κομπολόι. This etymology accounts for