54 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



composition of committees or classes, and for each peg the title is 

 suggested by a mnemonic pictograph. Clearly the space mnemonic 

 by which the pegs are arranged is fundamental; the pictographs are 

 secondary. 



Thus we see the League of 50 chiefs laid out in two halves: on 

 the right, one moiety comprises the phratry of the Mohawk-Onon- 

 daga-Seneca, the Three Brothers side, who are known as Sires 

 (Uncles), Elder Brothers; and, on the left, the other moiety of the 

 Offspring (Nephews), Cousins, Younger Brothers comprises but the 

 phratry of the Oneida-Cayuga, which is now known as the Four 

 Brothers side, since the younger brothers of the League on the Grand 

 River had under their wing dependent nations including Tuscarora 

 and Delaware, not to mention Saponi, Tutelo, and Nanticoke. Since 

 none of the latter was involved in the founding of the League, they 

 lack the right of condolence. 



The rosters of member tribes are, moreover, grouped according 

 to classes or committees of chiefs in accordance with their number 

 and function as follows : 



1. Mohawk 3-3-3. 



2. Oneida 3-3-3. 



3. Onondaga (2-2-2) 6-1-2-3-2. 



4. Cayuga 2-3-3-2. 



5. Seneca 2-2-2-2. 



Note at once that the tribal phratries are composed of a moiety of 

 3 nations and another of 2, and that precisely 2 and 3 are the pre- 

 dominate units of grouping chiefs in tribal councils. Note also that 

 the Mohawk and Oneida each had three clans of three maternal 

 families each. The other nations, who group their chiefs in mul- 

 tiples of two and three, favor the moiety system. 



The arrangement of the pegs on the cane agrees exactly with the 

 space relation charts which Hewitt had from Chief Abram Charles 

 (Hewitt and Fenton, 1945, pp. 304-305). Chief Charles and A. 

 Spragg were neighbors. 



The mnemonic can be made to yield something else which it means 

 to Iroquois ritualists. With the help of Chief Charles, Hewitt made 

 a chart which shows how the chiefs variously grouped relate to each 

 other as siblings and cousins. The cousin relation is not apparent in 

 the arrangement of pegs on the cane, although it shows up when laid 

 out in corn. Further field work will clarify the kinship terms as they 

 crop up in the Eulogy. It is not self-evident how, for example, Onon- 

 daga 25 is an "uncle" both ways ; and the Cayuga have self-recipro- 

 cating terms for 33-34 who are "sons to each other." 



