NO. 15 ROLL CALL OF IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 23 



Material and dimensions. — The stick itself is of sugar maple.^* 

 It has an over-all length of 890 nim. Its greatest breadth midway 

 is 37 mm.; its greatest thickness 15 mm. Tapering at the ends to an 

 oval and flatter at the midsection, the general appearance of the stick 

 suggests an Iroquois bow stave. 



Panels or sections of pegs. — The lateral edges of one side are 

 sectioned off into alternate panels in nice proportion to over-all length, 

 three on the right, and two between them on the left. The panels are 

 cut into the edge of the cane on a slant to form a standing bevel with 

 the edge ; the width of each bevel face is 10 mm., and the bevel makes 

 a 45-degree angle with the top and sides. From the top of the cane 

 the beveled panels measure no, 118, 165, 125, and no mm., re- 

 spectively. The panels have been drilled for seating wooden pegs 

 with flat heads. The number of pegs per panel is apportioned un- 

 equally. From the top, the sequence of drill holes for pegs is : 

 9-9- 1 4- 1 0-8, totaling 50. 



Some of the pegs are missing; one is cut off. Peg No. 32, being 

 14 in the third panel, has been cut off flush with the bevel. This is 

 important, recalling the testimony of David Thomas (Onondaga) 

 that Andrew Spragg insisted there were 13 Onondaga chiefs and had 

 cut off a peg, because deleting the last Onondaga title would dispose 

 of No. 14 in the third tribal panel.^^ The following pegs are lost: 

 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 29, 31, 44, 46, 47, 48. 



Besides being grouped into five alternate panels, the pegs segregate 

 themselves spatially within each panel in the following rhythmic pat- 

 terns: 3-3-3, 3-3-3, 6(2-2-2)1-2-3-2, 2-3-3-2, 2-2-2-2. (Fig. I.) 



Pictographs. — Each peg, moreover, is illustrated by a pictograph. 

 The pictograph stands opposite the peg so that when the cane is held 

 alternately sideways the representations for each panel stand above 

 the pegs, and the symbols can be read sequentially, first from right 

 to left, then from left to right for the second panel, right to left again 

 in the third, over to left to right in the fourth, until reaching the last 

 panel when the stick is held away from the singer so that the char- 

 acters may be read from near to far. Note that the first, third, and 

 fifth panels, which are on the same edge, read from right to left, and 

 the second and fourth panels, on the opposite edge, read from left to 

 right. In all cases the sequence is from top to bottom of the stick. 



14 Dr. Hatt submitted the specimen to Prof. Dow V. Baxter, School of 

 Forestry, University of Michigan. Hatt, R. T., personal communication, June 

 16, 1945. 



15 Another peg was cut off, according to the collector, Mr. Chandler, but, if 

 true, that peg has been lost. (Hatt, R. T., personal communication, April 14, 

 1945). 



