﻿NO. 7 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I926 24I 



Phratry to which such trihe belongs, and this fact automatically makes 

 the complementary Phratry Redeemers or Restorers. The mourners 

 are described as Those ivhosc minds arc prostrate, and the Redeemers 

 as Those zvhose minds are virgin or unaffected, and so in a position to 

 restore to full life those who mourn. 



In all formal public assemblies or councils, the Phratry of Tribes 

 representing the Father or the Male Principle occupies a side of the 

 real, or the imaginary, fire opposite to that occupied by the Phratry of 

 Tribes representing the mother or female principle. 



In formal public assemblies the Male or Father side of the tribe or 

 of the League is addressed as a single personality by the pronoun, 

 " thou," and by the terms, " My Father," " My Father's Brothers," 

 " You, Three Brothers." The Female or Mother side of the tribe or 

 of the league is also addressed as a single personality by the pronoun, 

 " thou," and by the terms, '' My Offspring " or " My Children," 

 ' My Weanling," and " You, Two (latterly Four) Brothers." These 

 examples apply specifically to the League institutions. It is these 

 figurative appellations which are employed in the Rituals and Chants 

 and Addresses of the Council of Condolence and Installation. To 

 understand these dramatized lyric compositions the terms in the fore- 

 going examples must be kept carefully in mind. 



These brief interpretative comments will enable one the better to 

 grasp the significance of the contents of the Requickening Address 

 in question. This formal lyric address is composed of 15 themes or 

 burdens of hurts to life learned from human experience, and the 

 asserted healing of each hurt by the use of the appropriate remedial 

 means by the ritually prescribed agent, the Celebrant. 



Each of these Themes or Burdens is set forth through a formula 

 common to all, with one or two exceptions. First, a specific type of 

 hurt arising from grief at the loss by death of kindred is made ; then, 

 this type of hurt is directly asserted as aft'ecting the mourner present ; 

 and, lastly, the Celebrant executes the symbolic act which at once heals 

 the hurt or removes its cause. 



From one to four strings of wampum about four inches long (the 

 proportion of white to purple beads varying with the theme), accom- 

 pany each of these Themes or Burdens when they are in use, and they 

 are hung upon a horizontal pole immediately in front of the celebrant 

 Orator. As he ends the recital of a Theme he sends by the hand of his 

 assistant the accompanying wampum string or strings to the opposite 

 or mourning side of the Council Fire, where they are hung on another 

 horizontal pole in front of the Speaker for that side. 



