NO. 15 ROLL CALL OP IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 35 



and grouped the chiefs in committees across the cane (fig. i, c). His 

 arrangement called for Mohawk at the top, Seneca and Onondaga 

 near the center; then a double line to separate this moiety of tribes 

 from the Cayuga and Oneida toward the foot. Such arrangement, 

 of course, resembles the seating of the tribal councils at the Six 

 Nations Court House in Ohsweken. (Hewitt, 1944, p. 85; Hewitt 

 and Fenton, 1945, p. 306.) Hardy's arrangement of pegs on the 

 cane entailed three horizontal rows of three dots for the Mohawk, 

 two rows of three and a row of two, or three rows of two — Hardy 

 was uncertain — for the Seneca; he was not sure of the Onondaga 

 arrangement ; but the Cayuga he knew was a row of two, two rows 

 of three, and another row of two, and Oneida simply repeats Mohawk. 

 Lacking the cane at rehearsals, they use white corn, Hardy recalled, 

 so the arrangement of pegs on the stick is the pattern for laying down 

 corn at rehearsals for the Condolence Council. 



Cane for Moccasin game at chiefs wake. — Collateral support for 

 the roll-call stick comes from two other wooden records from the 

 Iroquois of Six Nations Reserve. In June of 1916 J. N. B. Hewitt 

 collected a rather nice example of a cane with a crook for use in 

 the Moccasin game at a chief's wake (37th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol., p. 14, 1923) (pi. 7 of this paper). This unusual specimen 

 (U.S.N.M. No. 384288) had not been described at Mr. Hewitt's 

 passing (1937), and his notes on it are scanty indeed, being limited 

 to a single page (B.A.E. Ms. No. 3506). Thirty years is a long time 

 for a people to do without a bit of ritual paraphernalia, so that small 

 likelihood remains that diligent inquiry will discover how the cane 

 functions in the Moccasin game or how its symbolism serves to 

 prompt condolence speakers. Nevertheless, among specimens seen 

 in the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology in November 1945, 

 Howard Skye identified No. 19,836 as a bundle of stick counters 

 used in the Moccasin game, of which 50 is the number used for a 

 child, the full 100 being for an adult. The counters are of white 

 pine, as is the drum beater which accompanies them. At the wake, 

 clans divide into phratries and sit on opposite benches. Four moc- 

 casins are placed on the floor between them, the pile of counters at 

 one side. The singers have the drum, and one of their number hides 

 a bullet or stone in one of the moccasins before him; the seekers 

 have the wooden pointer or cane. The man who has the cane picks 

 one moccasin. If he finds the loaded one on the first try, that ends 

 the singing; but if he fails, the pointer goes to the man next to him 

 and the singers continue. At each miss the singers (hiders) get one 

 point. When the opposing side finds the object, they receive a 



