52 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



kettle was banded roimd with a wooden spoon in it; every one 

 took so much as he pleased/- This may have been placed in 

 his own small kettle. 



In 1684 La Salle wanted 2000 pounds of small brass kettles at 

 Fort Frontenac, costin^]^ 1 livre, 5 sous, a pound. These would 

 sell for 4 francs a pound, yielding a great profit. The English 

 and Dutch sold these also but included them among presents. 

 In 1C)93 Gov. Fletcher gave the Mohawks 24 brass kettles for 

 cooking to replace those the French had destroyed in February. 

 Some of 2 or 3 pounds weight were among the x>i'(^sents of the 

 following year. They prized small brass kettles but large ones 

 were needed for public occasions. When Schuyler and Living- 

 ston came to Onondaga in 1700 the Indians, " according to their 

 custom, hung over a great kettle of hasty pudding made of 

 parch'd Indian meal, and sent it us." The great kettle is now 

 of iron but is still a feature of New York reservation life. 



As one feature of i»ublic gatherings and great occasions the 

 kettle became symbolic. When Frontenac was preparing to 

 invade Onondaga in 1696, he spoke to his friendly Indians about 

 "the Great Kettle from which the whole world will take what 

 it wants to keep alive the war unto the end. Be not impatient; 

 that Kettle has not vet boiled; it will boil soon. Then will 

 Onontio invite all his children to the feast and they will find 

 wherewithal to fill them. The tears and the submissions of the 

 Irorjuois will no longer be received as in times past. They have 

 overflowed the measure; the patience of the common father is 

 exhausted; their destruction is inevitable.-' — (yCallafjlimu 0:645 



Dablon described the general war feast at Onondaga in chap- 

 ter 10 of the RdaMon of 1656, and part of this is quoted here: 



We saw in the latter part of January the ceremony which 

 takes place every winter in their preparations for war, and 

 which serves to stimulate their courage for the approaching 

 conflict. First of all the war kettle, as they call it, is hung 

 over the fire as early as the preceding autumn, in ord(^r that 

 each of the allies may have the opportunity to throw in some 

 precious morscd to be kept cooking through the winter; that is 

 to say, in order that they may contribute to the enterprise which 

 they are planning. The kettle having boiled steadily to the 



