206 ' SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



which occurs the noteworthy Farewell Address of this chieftain to 

 the Federal Council of the League when he resigned from it when he 

 felt that he had completed his work. 



The great difficulty encountered in attempting a translation of such 

 a document lies in the fact that in large measure its words and phrases 

 have either a forensic, a legal, or a ritualistic, denotation, which may 

 be far removed from its sense in the daily speech of the people. An 

 example of this figurative employment of ordinary words is the em- 

 ployment of the obsolescent term for mat in the sense of land or coun- 

 try, and qualified by other highly metaphorical terms. Given the ex- 

 pression, meaning the great white mat, one must discover its forensic 

 meaning, a land covered with peace, a country covered with good 

 health ; also the use of the word meaning day for year, season, or time. 

 It is almost impossible to find an Iroquois of today who can under- 

 stand such metaphoric expressions, and even should they be under- 

 stood, to render them into technical English terms is not possible be- 

 cause such English words are unused by them. 



It may be of general interest to call attention to the fact that some 

 of the Iroquois still dwell in log houses. An accompanying illustration 

 of the home of Chief John Buck, Jr., shows the main outside features 

 of such a building. Logs of suitable lengths are hewn into slab-like 

 form, 8 or lo inches thick and 14 to 20 inches broad. The ends of 

 these timbers are cut in such wise that they will dovetail together and 

 so interlocking as to form a firm and secure structure, which is 

 usually two stories high. The timbers are laid one over another in 

 such manner as to form four walls, and the interstices between them 

 are filled with cement or clay mud so that winds and rains and snows 

 do not enter the building. When in good condition they are very com- 

 fortable, much more so than the ancient elm l)ark structures which 

 they displaced. 



Upon leaving the Grand River Six Nations of Ontario, Canada, I 

 visited the Tuscarora of New York State, dwelling near Sanborn, 

 N. Y. There, with the aid of Mrs. Sally Ann Chew, a typical 

 Tuscarora woman. I recorded in her language more than twO' hundred 

 plant, animal, and bird names, and some personal names. Leaving 

 this reservation I visited the Onondaga reservation near Syracuse, 

 N. Y., where assistance was obtained from Chief Emmet Lyons on 

 some moot points of translation and interpretation of Onondaga texts 

 of the League of the Iroquois. Thence, I went to Rochester, N. Y., 

 where I inspected the Iroquois collections in the Municipal Museum 

 of the City of Rochester, which is under the capable Directorship of 

 Dr. Arthur C. Parker, former State Archeologist at Albany, N. Y. 



