50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



use by the Three Brothers side from Seneca Chief John A. Gibson 

 (B.A.E. Ms. No. 890, 1907) (and Gibson to Goldenweiser, 1916 — Ms. 

 in my possession) and Onondaga Chief Joshua Buck (B.A.E. Ms. 

 No. 1281-b, 1917 and 1920) were dictated in Onondaga primarily and 

 do not fit the cane as nicely. Similar recordings were made for me by 

 David Thomas in 1945. The order of the introduction in no two 

 of these versions is precisely the same, for the "words" come in 

 different order, tenses vary, and some variation appears in versions 

 given Hewitt by the same informant at later sittings. My suspicion 

 is that no two performers are ever precisely alike. Rather than re- 

 produce here any one of the texts completely, it is the sequence of 

 the pictographs and their possible meaning which concerns us. 



Eighteen words or phrases are supposed to preface the roll call. 

 It comes out to about 18 sentences or lines of poetry in the chant 

 before the singer turns over the stick to commence the roll call, 

 stepping out of the door to take up the path when he announces the 

 first founder. Accordingly, having written the translation of several 

 versions on separate sheets and compared them, it became possible 

 to divide the recurrent phrases or elements and assign them to ap- 

 propriate symbols. More than this, the exercise enabled me to run 

 a blueprint of the back of the cane through the typewriter and write in 

 the margins the appropriate lines beside the pictographs (fig. 2). Some 

 idea of the poetry is found in the version of Chief General (1943). 



Hai Hai (repeat four times; eight in all; and after each line below) : 



Now to commence at the beginning, 

 Your grandchildren right 

 Now take up the path; 

 May you excuse them 

 If here and there in the ritual 

 They shall not perform it in order 

 The way that you used to do it 

 When all the words were together 

 As you established it. 



Now only abandoned fields overlie 



The places where your bones rest, 



Where buried beneath your heads, 



Where you lie on it as a mat, 



Where you rest on it as a pillow. 



Where you have taken it (into your graves), 



What you established (the League). 



