42 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



slightly different arrangements for putting down kernels of corn at 

 rehearsals. The first arrangement is a straight-line sequence, stag- 

 gering the tribal rosters and grouping chiefs of a class closely together. 

 It appears in Charles' notebook (Hewitt and Fenton, 1945, pp. 304- 

 305), in the cane diagram by S. Gibson, and on the Cranbrook cane 

 (fig. I, a and b). Possibly this is the method of the Cayugas. The 

 second arrangement retains the straight-line sequence for groups of 

 chiefs that are related as brothers to express phratric alignment, but 

 differs from the first in putting down pairs of kernels laterally to 

 symbolize a cousin or intermoiety relationship that obtains between 

 leading chiefs who share the roles of firekeepers, doorkeepers, and 

 may be noted in the arrangements of the Onondaga, Cayuga, and 

 particularly the Seneca tribal rosters (fig. i, c, d, e). The second is 

 an Onondaga pattern ; it is employed in the manuscript lists of Seth 

 Newhouse; and I observed the mnemonic in operation among the 

 Onondaga at a rehearsal which I attended on the Six Nations Reserve, 

 Canada, on November 18, 1945. The several mnemonics are con- 

 trasted in the accompanying illustration (fig. i). A possible third 

 entirely lateral arrangement was recalled by Chief John Hardy Gibson 

 (Cayuga) in 1940 which has already been described (p. 34) ; since 

 he had participated with his Seneca father on the Three Brothers 

 side of Condolence Councils, his is probably not a Cayuga arrange- 

 ment (fig. I, c). 



FUNCTION: A REMINDER TO THE EULOGY SINGER 

 REHEARSALS 



The cane served to remind the Eulogy singer during rehearsals 

 and in the actual ceremony of the Condolence Council. When, for 

 example, the Three Brothers (Mohawk-Onondaga-Seneca) receive 

 the short white string of wampum notifying them that one matron 

 of the Four Brothers (Oneida, Cayuga, etc.), whom the Cayuga 

 speaker represents, is ready to install a chief, they confer to set a 

 date for the installation which usually is held 30 days afterward. The 

 date of the Condolence Council may not be set for summer, but it 

 must be held in the fall after the crops are in and the plants are 

 frosted, or it may be held in early spring before the buds are on, but 

 late enough so that the paths are not muddy, for which reason the 

 autumn is far preferable.^" The chiefs on both sides meet nearly every 



19 The tabu on singing the Condolence ritual rests harder on modern ritualists 

 than it did on their grandfathers. At present the chiefs will not consider the 

 question of a Condolence between spring and fall. It is considered too sacred 



