NO. 15 ROLL CALL OF IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 25 



Less than half of the pictographs are representative designs ; most 

 of the characters are abstractions. A number of the representations 

 relate to plants : a stalk and branches, branch and leaves, trunk and 

 branch, a corn cob. Number 6 is a bird, 7 is an antler, a wolf appears 

 at 25. Anthropomorphic designs, however, predominate; they are 

 either of whole men, heads accentuating such parts as an eye, a 

 double profile, an ear, profiles face to face, a flat head, a scalped 

 head, etc. Over 25 are pure abstractions, or at least appear so until 

 one learns what is intended. Therefore, pure symbols carry over half 

 the burden, and together with the arrangement of pegs and panels 

 comprise a true mnemonic. 



The figures appear to have been drawn with a nail or hard pencil, 

 with the sole exception of the tree opposite peg No. 4, which is 

 definitely incised. Evidently the maker, or some keeper, never carried 

 out an idea of carving all the figures after attempting the first four. 



Reverse side. — The reverse side of the stick bears the name 

 A SPRAG (fig. 2), followed by a series of symbols, which appear 

 more clearly; and the cipher-shaped symbols are followed by repre- 

 sentations of what may be intended for grass, brush overgrowing 

 supine bodies lying over other matters that are represented by round 

 objects, a dotted circle ; and then come a parade of five human heads 

 with horns (perhaps chiefs with antlers of office, evidently following 

 the path to) a longhouse with two smokes, after which stands the 

 erect bust of a man facing left toward what has preceded. The 

 preceding symbols or characters are circles in units of one, three, 

 five, and these are ranged from high (a single circle), middle (three 

 ciphers on the level), to low (five ciphers with an appendage slanting 

 downward to lower left on the last). Above the last are a line of 

 five inverted c's, followed by three hache marks. Next come two 

 parallel sets of linked ciphers and dots which slant from lower left 

 to upper right. The first is surmounted by a dotted circle. The last 

 is a line connecting two circles, passing between five smaller ciphers 

 spaced three to the left and two to the right like the panels on the 

 obverse of the stick. The last connected circle at the upper right 

 of the second set has a pupil like an eye directed left. 



Part of the next figure, possibly intended for a human heart or 

 face, projects beneath the surface of a horizontal line into a triangle 

 of three tiny circles ; within the area of the figure above the line or 

 surface are an open circle (possibly an eye) and another which 

 appears to be directed along parallel rising broken lines to succeeding 

 units. 



