Note 173 — Chapter II

Professor Dawson, speaking of the account in the narrative, which says “that the most precious thing that they have in all the world they call esurguy, which is white, and which they take in the said river in cornifats,” explains that esurguy is “probably a vulgar local name for some shell supposed to resemble that of which these Indians made their wampum. I would suggest that it may be derived from cornet, which is used by old French writers as a name for the shells of the genus Voluta, and is also a technical term in conchology. In this case it is likely that the esurguy was made of the shells of some species of Melania or Paludina, just as the Indians on the coast used for beads and ornaments the shells of Purpura lapillus and of Dentalium, etc. It is just possible that Cartier may have misunderstood the mode of procuring these shells, and that the [his] statement may refer to some practice of making criminals and prisoners dive for them in the deeper parts of the river.”—Fossil Men, etc., p. 32, n.