noun (n)

• small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and fashioned into strings or belts; used by certain Native American peoples as jewelry or currency(noun.artifact)

  Synonym:
  wampum, wampumpeag
  

  source: wordnet30
• A kind of aboriginal shell money, or wampum, of the Atlantic coast of the United States; -- originally applied only to polished white cylindrical beads.(noun)

  source: webster1913