28 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



OPINIONS OF EITUALISTS AT SIX NATIONS 



While in the field and between trips during this study I could 

 count on the interest of Chief Alex General of the Upper Cayuga 

 band, present holder of the title Deska'heh. On seeing a drawing 

 of the Stick, Chief General confirmed the fact that the front is a 

 tally of the 50 chiefs in the League. In this he received the support 

 of Simeon Gibson in 1943 and the latter's brother Chief John Hardy 

 Gibson who was installed in 1945 ; the Gibson brothers in 1939 and 

 1940 had mentioned the existence of such a cane. On the Three 

 Brothers side, David Thomas sustained the identification, and al- 

 though he is an Onondaga warrior, nevertheless he commands the 

 respect of the chiefs in such matters and they rely on him to speak 

 for them and to perform principal roles in the Condolence Council, 

 including Eulogy Singer and Speaker of the Requickening Address 

 (Hewitt (Fenton, ed.), 1944). 



What we have designated the "back" of the stick, because it was 

 least obvious in the field, presented more of a problem to informants. 

 When Simeon Gibson looked at it, he was obviously puzzled as to 

 its meaning, save the symbol of the "longhouse with two smokes" 

 which is clear to any Iroquois. He remarked : 



It is too bad that all the Cayuga chiefs are now dead, such as Robert Davey 

 and Abram Charles, who were living at the time Andrew Spragg used the cane 

 when singing on the road. It is hard to know [from the characters] just what 

 he meant; he put down just his own idea. 



At the time (1943) Simeon doubted that the present singer for 

 the Cayugas, Charlie Van Every, ever saw the cane, but up until the 

 present it has not been possible to question him. 



To Chief General, however, it is clear that the back of the stick 

 depicts the beginning of the Hai Hai or Eulogy chant, when the 

 condoling chiefs of the Four Brothers side first assemble at Lower 

 Cayuga Longhouse before starting out on the road to Onondaga. 

 When first they gather at Lower Cayuga, the condoling chiefs appoint 

 a man as leading singer to start the Eulogy. Pacing to and fro in 

 the longhouse, the singer carries the Eulogy through its long intro- 

 duction all the way to the end, as far as it is depicted on the back 

 side of the Condolence cane, before turning the stick to call the name 

 of the first Mohawk title at the moment that he steps out of the 

 longhouse door to lead the procession over the road to Onondaga. 



Recalling the forepart of the Eulogy chant. Chief General was able 

 to adjust his version to the circular symbols or ciphers (O, and 000), 

 by equating each repetition of the recurrent phrase Hai hai-ih to a 



