NO, 15 ROLL CALL OF IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 53 



Accepting as a second design unit circles connected by lines and a 

 dot within a circle. Chief General thought that the dot and circle 

 meant the "completed League" as orignally established (2, a) ; the 

 path through the villages of the Five Nations, which the condolers 

 follow, is represented by a line from a circle through four dots 

 (2, b) ; and the next figure, a line connecting two circles, but passing 

 between five dots (2, c), I have assigned to the phrases which beg 

 the founders to excuse errors of sequence and ommission in the 

 ceremony as they anciently performed it when all the words were 

 together. 



The next figure obviously refers to heads in graves, where the 

 founders have taken with them what they decreed (3). Certain items 

 appear beneath the surface, and the broken lines toward the sod in 

 the next figure express movement. 



The sod line (4, a) represents : "Now only abandoned fields overlie 

 the places where your bones rest upon the things which you estab- 

 lished" (4, b). 



So with the next unit : ". . . overgrown with brush (overspreading 

 trees, forests) (5, a), where you are lying on the mat of the law 

 (5. b), where you have put it under your head as a pillow . . . 

 (5, c), what indeed you established (the League)" (6, a). On the 

 contrary. Chief General thought this figure (dot and circle) refers 

 to grassy plots where they anciently met to legislate. 



Next come a procession of leading chiefs of the Five Nations 

 wearing horns of office going on the path (6, b) toward the longhouse 

 with two smokes (7), which goes with the line: "You have reinforced 

 (strengthened) the house (the League)" (via the Condolence Coun- 

 cil). It also stands for their destination where the main part of the 

 ceremony is performed, and, finally, where the new chief is to be 

 raised (8). The last figure of the man is also a reminder to insert 

 special praise to the Dead Chief when the singer reaches the vacant 

 title (on the obverse side of the cane). "You did erect a great tree" 

 is the line that applies here, since the chief is likened to a pine tree 

 beneath which the people sit. 



FRONT : THE ROLL CALL OF THE FOUNDERS 



The Roll Call of the Founders of the League occupies the front 

 of the stick (fig. 3). Here laid out, after the manner of kernels at 

 rehearsal, may be seen at a glance the space relationship of the five 

 tribes, how they are grouped in phratries and divided into moieties. 

 Closer examination reveals the number of chiefs in each tribe, the 



