DCHP-1 Online
hiaqua Various spellings [< Chinook Jargon < Nootka] Pacific Coast, Hist. 
n. the shell of a mollusc, Dentalium indianorum, used by the Coast Indians as money and ornaments.
See also: hykwa
- 1816 (1849) 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 (1931) The Ears are perforated all round and Beads or Hyaques suspended therefrom in quantity according to the rank or taste of the party.
- 1829 (1948) . . . 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.
- 1816 (1849) 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.