/ 
- 
52, NEW YORK STAT# MUSEUM 
kettle was handed round with a wooden spoon in it; every one — 
took so much as he pleased.” This may have been placed in 
his own small kettle. | 
In 1684 La Salle wanted 2000 pounds of small brass kettles at 
Fort Frontenac, costing 1 livre, 5 sous, a pound. These would 
sell for 4 frances a pound, yielding a great profit. The English 
and Dutch sold these also but included them among presents. 
In 1693 Goy. Fletcher gave the Mohawks 24 brass kettles for 
cooking to replace those the French had destroyed in February. — 
Some of 2 or 3 pounds weight were among the presents of the — 
following year. They prized small brass kettles but large ones 
were needed for public occasions. When Schuyler and Living- 
ston came to Onondaga in 1700 the Indians, “ according to their { 
custom, hung over a great kettle of hasty pudding made of 
parch’d Indian meal, and sent it us.” The great kettle is now — 
of iron but is still a feature of New York reservation life. | 
As one feature of public gatherings and great occasions the — 
kettle became symbolic. When Frontenac was preparing to — 
invade Onondaga in 1696, he spoke to his friendly Indians about 
“the Great Kettle from which the whole world will take what . 
it wants to keep alive the war unto the end. Be not impatient; — 
that Kettle has not yet boiled; it will boil soon. Then will — 
Onontio invite all his children to the feast and they will find 
wherewithal to fill them. The tears and the submissions of the ; 
Iroquois will no longer be received as in times past. They have 
overflowed the measure; the patience of the common father is . 
exhausted; their destruction is inevitable.”—O’Callaghan, 9:645 
Dablon described the general war feast at Onondaga in chap- | 
ter 10 of the Relation of 1656, and part of this is quoted here: 
We saw in the latter part of January the ceremony which 
takes place every winter in their preparations for war, and 
which serves to stimulate their courage for the approaching 
conflict. First of all the war kettle, as they call it, is hung 
over the fire as early as the preceding autumn, in order that — 
each of the allies may have the opportunity to throw in some | 
precious morsel to be kept cooking through the winter; that is” | 
to say, in order that they may contribute to the enterprise whieh __ 
they are planning. The kettle having boiled steadily to the 
