NO. 15 ROLL CALL OF IROQUOIS CHIEFS — FENTON 63 



latter. "When they saw him first he was seated by the river casting 

 chips into the water, presumably of beech which would sink to the 

 bottom" (Smoke-Skye). A very important chief constituting a class 

 by himself, he has special responsibilities as keeper of the wampums 

 for the Confederacy. As archivist he was called upon to settle dis- 

 putes. The Eulogy says of him, "Then he alone was son (offspring 

 of the preceding), He the Great Wolf, on whom their minds de- 

 pend. . . ." Note that his was the only office in the entire roll call 

 which constituted a class by itself. Naturally the Wolf clan claims 

 the title, and the eponymous animal appears next to the ideograph 

 for the name. 



26. Oewenniseroni, Gowennen'shen'donk, Gawenne'sen'donh, "Her 

 voice is hanging," or "Hanging strings" (S. Gibson) ; "Her voice 

 suspended" (Hale) . The meaning is obscure and it has become indeed 

 a title. It is impossible to know what about one-quarter of the titles 

 meant four centuries ago. The inscriber of the cane engraved a 

 stepped character inclined to the right, which also occurs on the 

 Charles drawings. With reference to 25, the Eulogy speaks of this 

 title (26) and (27), "And these were his uncles, the two fireplaces" 

 (clans). Hale (1883, p. 159) says: "The five chiefs who follow 

 probably bore some peculiar political relation to . . . [25]." Deer 

 clan still claims 26 and 27 ; Eel clan 28-30. 



27. Arirhonh, Ha"hi''hon', "He spills, tips it" (Gibson) ; "Spilled" 

 or "Scattered" (Hale). I am unable to reconcile either interpretation 

 with the foolish-looking character on the cane, unless some idea of 

 mental derangement is intended. 



28. Oewayonhnyeanih, Hoyonnyen'ni', "He was made to do it" 

 (H. Skye) ; "Somebody made it for him" (S. Gibson). The meaning 

 is not clear ; Hale found no satisfactory explanation. The ideograph 

 is not self-evident. This office and the next two belong to Eel clan, 

 forming a phratry. 



29. (Tho)Sadegwaseh, Shodegwa-'sen', or Shodegwa-'shon', "He 

 the bruiser," or "He smashes it again" (Gibson) ; "Bruised repeatedly" 

 (Skye). Cf. 35. "He is bruised" (Hale). The pictograph is a claw 

 hammer of a square-ended type made in the nineteenth century. A 

 ball-headed war club would have been more appropriate and probably 

 would have been illustrated a century earlier. Eel clan. 



30. Sakokeaeh, S'hagogen"'he', or Shagogen''he • ', "He saw the 

 people" (Gibson), "He sees her (them) occasionally" (Skye). "He 

 saw them" (Hale). The Iroquois use the third person singular 

 nonmasculine, or "feminine," form to stand for society. "He saw 

 her" is what the illustrator of the cane had in mind, for the pictograph 



