26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



The broken lines lead to a horizontal line on top of which are 

 engraved short sets of vertical lines in all probability representing 

 sod. Beneath the sod line is a supine figure lying on round objects, 

 obviously in a grave. The succeeding unit is in character, but here 

 the surface of the earth is overgrown with brush, and this time the 

 body lying in its grave has a round object or cipher beneath its head 

 as a pillow, and five short vertical marks support the body. The 

 remaining figures require no further elaboration. 



GENERAL SYMBOLISM 

 RECOGNITION BY THE IROQUOIS AND BY ANTHROPOLOGISTS 



The specimen was submitted to several specialists on the Indians 

 of northeastern North America. These anthropologists in turn sup- 

 ported their opinions by consulting native authorities among the 

 surviving Iroquois. They are of one mind : the specimen is a roll-call 

 stick, a cane to prop up the memory of the song leader who is ap- 

 pointed to chant the Eulogy to the Founders of the Iroquois League 

 during the Condolence Council. The Iroquois know this rite as Hai 

 Hai, a specific name for this feature that has become a general 

 euphemism for the whole Condolence Council. Specifically in Onon- 

 daga of Six Nations Reserve it is atahiuQ^ge hai hai ne' gae-na', for 

 which the word order is reversed in translation to read, "The song 

 of eulogy for journeying on the path." In modern parlance this 

 becomes "Hai hai for going on the road." 



The stick was submitted first to the noted Iroquoianist, Dr. Arthur 

 C. Parker, then Director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and 

 Sciences, who examined the stick, made some tracings of it, and 

 showed photographs of it to some Seneca chiefs at Tonawanda. Since 

 the incorporation of the Seneca Nation on the Allegany and Cat- 

 taraugus reservations a century ago, Tonawanda is the last place in 

 western New York where the system of life chiefs is preserved, and 

 here are concentrated the eight titles that the Seneca tribe held in 

 the council of the League. The present incumbents are the descendants 

 of Morgan's informants. The present chiefs to whom Parker showed 

 the photographs were able to interpret some of the names, but it 

 puzzled them why some titles are represented as they are by the 

 pictographs found on the stick.^^ We would expect them to follow 

 the enumeration of chiefs as given by Morgan, and they would be 



"Arthur C. Parker to Robert T. Hatt, February 3, 1943; Hatt, R. T., per- 

 sonal communication, February 5, 1943. 



