NO. 15 ROLL CALL OF IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 43 



other night to rehearse the songs during the weeks preceding the 

 installation. 



At rehearsals of the Four Brothers (Oneida, Cayuga, and depen- 

 dent tribes) the cane was present, but when it was not they used white 

 corn, setting out a kernel for each of the Six Songs and for each of 

 the 50 chiefs denominated in the roll call. The Three Brothers, lack- 

 ing the cane, merely use corn. 



Only the Cayugas had a cane. Spragg was its keeper, and Chief 

 Alex General remembers that the usual way at rehearsals in the 

 lifetime of Chief Abram Charles (mother's brother of my informant 

 Chief John Hardy Gibson who was installed as his successor in 1945) 

 was that they made a kettle of corn soup for a midnight feast. Kernels 

 of com were employed for teaching neophytes the order of the roll 

 call. Chief Charles used to lay down a kernel of corn for each man 

 (chief ship title), telling the relationship of that status to other chiefs 

 in the same group, the groupings in the tribal council, and the relation- 

 ships between the tribes of the League. Chief Charles called the 

 name for each kernel of corn as he put it down. All watched. When 

 he got through he would say, "Now, who is going to try it?" Some 

 individual would volunteer and take the cane to aid his memory. 



The learning process extended to other members of the household, 

 including daughters. A daughter of Chief Charles, the late Mrs. 

 George Buck, recalled how her sister, then a little girl, could go 

 through the whole Condolence ritual, and that after a rehearsal she 

 would take a cane and pace back and forth inside the house chanting 

 the Eulogy and calling the names of the founders, which she had 

 learned by hearing her father instruct the men. No woman, however, 

 to our knowledge undertook this role at a public ceremony. Never- 

 theless, we can understand how matrons carry the ceremonial culture 

 and critically audit the ceremonies of the chiefs whom they install. 



The Three Brothers side who do not have the cane use the corn. 

 They used to rehearse at the home of my interpreter, Howard Skye, 

 himself a Cayuga as were both his parents, because it was central 

 to the Onondaga neighborhood. Skye is treasurer of the Onondaga 

 Longhouse; his father was deputy chief to Abram Charles. In re- 

 hearsing, the Onondaga chiefs and their colleagues used six kernels 



to sing or discuss between condolences — "too sacred to play with." In 1883 a 

 Condolence was held at Onondaga Longhouse on Grand River in July, after 

 many postponements (Hale, 1895, p. 48), which is much later in the season 

 than accepted native theory will allow or the present chiefs will admit. And 

 David Boyle attended one in early May of 1905 at the same place (Boyle, 1906, 

 p. 56). 



