346 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
tufts of bright merino without significance. When these strings | 
were laid in a circle on a table, the council was opened. It was 
adjourned by taking them up. In this way a religious council was 
-opened and closed at Onondaga in 1894, but not with the same 
wampum. The Mohawks, Onondagas and Senecas are elder 
brothers, and their special bunches for other purposes differed from 
those of the younger brothers, the Oneidas, Cayugas and Tusca- 
roras. The Mohawks had six strings in a bunch, two purple beads 
to one white, and the four strings of the Onondagas had the same 
proportion. In the four strings of the Senecas two. purple beads 
alternated with two white. In the division of the younger brothers 
the Oneidas and Tuscaroras had each seven strings, in which nearly 
all the beads were purple. The six strings of the Cayugas con- 
tained no white beads. These strings were also tied in bunches, © 
and were taken up and held in the hand by the speaker while ad- 
dressing each nation. As each address was concluded one was laid 
down and another taken up. | 
The strings used in condolences are the most important now, 
but some are already disused. When a principal chief dies, a runner 
is or should be sent with the proper wampum to the other nations. 
He goes through the village calling kwé, three times at intervals 
if it is a principal chief, once if it is but a war chief. The wampum 
varies accordingly. Sometimes there are three runners a few rods 
apart. There are three small strings of purple beads united at one 
end for a member of the grand council, as in fig. 35, and a longer 
single string for a war chief, who is now the assistant of the other. 
This string has the ends tied, so as to form a circle, as in fig. 41. 
Attached to the message of any kind is a small stick, with notches 
to show the number of days to the council or condolence. The 
wampum is returned at the council, which is more fully described 
elsewhere. There is a growing disuse of some features, partly 
through the scarcity of wampum and increasing ignorance of proper 
forms. Invitation wampum may be used for feasts or any meetings, 
and even a grain of corn suffices for the (10 days’ dead feast. 
In the strings described to the writer 10 of dark purple beads were 
used if the chief’s office was vacant by death. If he had lost his 
