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hiaqua
[< Chinook Jargon < Nootka]
Pacific Coast, Hist.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Spelling variants:Various spellings
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
n.
the shell of a mollusc, Dentalium indianorum, used by the Coast Indians as money and ornaments.
See: hykwa
Quotations
1816
The circulating medium in use among these people is a small white shell called higua, about two inches long, of a convex form, and hollow in the heart, resembling in appearance the small end of a smoking pipe.
1824
The Ears are perforated all round and Beads or Hyaques suspended therefrom in quantity according to the rank or taste of the party.
1829
. . . if you buy for us the Value of Thirty Blankets of hiaquois it would be desirable. . . .
1859
. . . iaquas . . . are valuable to their length, and their value increases according to a fixed ration, forty shells being the standard number to extend a fathom's length; which number . . . is equal in value to a beaver skin; but if thirty-nine be found long enough to make the fathom, it would be worth two beavers' skins; if thirty-eight, three skins; and so on, increasing one beaver skin for every shell less than the standard number.
1923
The shell dentalium indianorum, commonly called hiquia, is much esteemed by the coast Indians, and amongst them has fulfilled some of the functions of money.