Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Wampum \Wam"pum\, n. [North American Indian wampum, wompam, from
   the Mass. w['o]mpi, Del. w[=a]pe, white.]
   Beads made of shells, used by the North American Indians as
   money, and also wrought into belts, etc., as an ornament.

         Round his waist his belt of wampum.      --Longfellow.

         Girded with his wampum braid.            --Whittier.

   Note: These beads were of two kinds, one white, and the other
         black or dark purple. The term wampum is properly
         applied only to the white; the dark purple ones are
         called suckanhock. See {Seawan}. ``It [wampum]
         consisted of cylindrical pieces of the shells of
         testaceous fishes, a quarter of an inch long, and in
         diameter less than a pipestem, drilled . . . so as to
         be strung upon a thread. The beads of a white color,
         rated at half the value of the black or violet, passed
         each as the equivalent of a farthing in transactions
         between the natives and the planters.'' --Palfrey.

Source : WordNet®

wampum
     n 1: informal terms for money [syn: {boodle}, {bread}, {cabbage},
           {clams}, {dinero}, {dough}, {gelt}, {kale}, {lettuce},
          {lolly}, {lucre}, {loot}, {moolah}, {pelf}, {scratch}, {shekels},
           {simoleons}, {sugar}]
     2: small cylindrical beads made from polished shells and
        fashioned into strings or belts; used by certain Native
        American peoples as jewelry or currency [syn: {peag}, {wampumpeag}]