1897.] PRIXCE — THE PASSA:\[AQU0DDY WAMPUM RECORDS. 487 



Ceremonies Customary at the Death of a Chief. 



When the chief of a tribe died, his flag-pole was cut down and 

 burnt, and his war-like appurtenances, bows and arrows, tomahawk 

 and flag, were buried with him. The Indians mourned for him one 

 year, after which the Pwutwuslmwuk or leading men were summoned 

 by the tribe to elect a new chief. The members of one tribe alone 

 could not elect their own chief; according to the common laws of 

 the allied nations, he had to be chosen by a general wigwam. Ac- 

 cordingly, after the council of the leading men had assembled, four 

 or six canoes were dispatched to the Micmac, Penobscot and Mali- 

 seet tribes if a Passamaquoddy chief had died.^ These canoes bore 

 each a little flag in the bow as a sign that the mission on which the 

 messengers came was important. On the arrival of the messengers 

 at their destination, the chief of the tribe to which they came called 

 all his people, children, women and men, to meet the approaching 

 boats. The herald springing to land first sang his salutation song 

 {n^'skaweivinfuagunul), walking back and forth before the ranks of 

 the other tribe. When he had finished his chant the other Indians 

 sang their welcoming song'in reply. 



As soon as the singing was over they marched to some Unwewig- 

 wam or meeting house to pray together. The visiting Indians were 

 then taken to a special wigwam allotted to their use over which a 

 flag was set. Here they were greeted informally by the members of 

 the tribe with hand-shaking, etc. The evening of the first day was 

 spent in entertaining the visitors. 



On the next day the messengers sent to the chief desiring to see 

 all the tribe assembled in a gwandoivanek or dance-hall. When the 

 tribe had congregated there, the strangers were sent for, who, pro- 

 ducing their strings of wampum to be read according to the law 

 of the big wigwam, announced the death of the chief of their 

 tribe, 'their eldest boy " (ktchi lu' skinosismowal), and asked that 

 the tribe should aid them to elect a new chief. The chief of the 



1 From here on the recorder mentions only the neighboring Algonkin tribes as 

 belonging to the federation which he has in mind. The northern Algonkin tribes 

 were very probably in a loose federation with the Iroquois merely for purposes of 

 intertribal arbitration. These Algonkin clans themselves, however, seem to have been 

 politically interdependent, as one clan could not elect a chief without the consent of 

 all the others. 



