LEAGUE OP IROQUOIS HEWITT. 539 



because of vexation of spirit for the loss of his children by the will 

 of the great sorcerer, Atotarho (Watatotarho). 



The descriptive details are highly interesting to the antiquarian 

 because they shed some faint light on the kind of pledge or vouch 

 which was in use before wampum and wampum strings came into 

 vogue for that purpose. On this journey some of the persons dele- 

 gated to communicate with Hiawatha used for a pledge small shoots 

 of the elderberry bush which were cut into short pieces, and from 

 which the pith was removed, and these little cylinders strung on 

 small cords of sinew ; likewise, the tradition continues, the quills of 

 large feathers, cut off and strung on cords, were also used as tokens, 

 pledges, or vouches for the good faith of the messenger or speaker. 



Fresh-water shells were substituted by Hiawatha for these things. 

 Coining to a small body of water, he saw its surface literally covered 

 by ducks swimming about. He went near and exclaimed, "Do you 

 not attach any importance to my mission ? " At once the ducks flew 

 up into the air, bearing up with them the water of the lake. Hia- 

 watha at once went down into the bottom of the lake, thus made 

 dry, and there he saw many shells of various colors. These he gath- 

 ered and placed in a skin bag which he carried. When the bag had 

 been filled he returned to the shore of the lake, and selecting a suit- 

 able place sat down there and, tradition says, strung the 28 strings 

 with their messages, which are employed in the ritual of the con- 

 doling and installation ceremony of the league to this day, although 

 these fresh-water shells have long been replaced by wampum beads. 



It is thus seen that this tradition makes Hiawatha the designer of 

 the pledges for this rite, although the matter of the tradition shows 

 that this cannot be true, because the use of a set number of topics of 

 (he "comfort,'' or rather " requickening address," was in vogue 

 among other tribes of the Iroquoian linguistic stock — the Huron, 

 for example. 



The name Hiawatha was immortalized by Longfellow in the 

 beautiful poem bearing this name, although there is nothing in the 

 poem that can be predicated of the historical person bearing that 

 name. This was due to the mistake of confusing two names — that of 

 Hiawatha with that of the Iroquoian god, the Master of Life, the 

 one who gives or creates all life, both f aunal and floral, on the earth. 



Mr. J. V. H. Clark, in his " Onondaga, etc.," is directly responsible 

 for this confusion, for, although Schoolcraft added to it. Mr. Clark 

 brought it to pass in the first instance. In the hands of careless 

 hearers and recorders native Indian names which in fact have no re- 

 lationship whatsoever are readily confounded. In the Mohawk dia- 

 lect of the Iroquoian stock of languages (and in all others of this 

 stock using the r-sound in their phonetics) Teharonhia wagon ap- 

 proximately records the sounds in the name of the Life God or the 



