WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 405 
wampum to the University of the State of New York last June. This 
precious relic will now forever remain with the state, and it is my re- 
quest that the name of Gen. Ely S. Parker shall be attached to it in 
his memory, not only as the most distinguished of his later people, 
but as the last “keeper of the west door” of the confederacy of 
the Iroquois. At the condolence council of Gen. Parker another 
Donehogawah sachem—one of the 52 names that were hereditary in 
the nation—was raised or appointed as the successor of Gen. Parker, 
but the remnant of the Senecas is so feeble that the present sachem 
would not by law hold the belt. Some day the state of New York 
may get its brother belt of the Mohawks. I hope for it. 
The statement given by the Senecas shows the small value to be 
attached to Indian traditions; and their ideas of this fine belt seem 
' to have completely changed in the century and more in which it 
may have been held by them. Mrs Converse has wisely called at- 
tention to the red paint still to be seen on some of the beads, and 
which changed any belt into one of war. War belts may be 
reckoned by scores. This belt is a recent one of purple wampum, 
having the Five Nations represented by five open hexagons of white 
beads. Three rows of five white beads at each end alternate with 
the purple. A belt recently held by the Onondagas is almost the 
exact counterpart of this. In both, the hexagons represent the 
nations and they could be transformed into war belts by the use 
of red paint. The general design was common. Used as a war 
belt it might have been sent to. or by the Five Nations. In the 
latter case the proposal of war was rejected, and the belt was.re- 
turned. It was customary for any of the Five Nations to propose 
war by a belt, or even to carry it on alone, but a general war could 
be determined only by the grand council at Onondaga. War belts 
might call this council together, but they only proposed war. ‘This 
belt is 38 inches long in the beaded part, or 370 beads. ‘The full 
width is 2 inches, or seven rows. The buckskin thongs are about 3.5 
inches long at the ends, the outer ones being double and twisted. 
L. H. Morgan gives a list of 50 Iroquois principal chiefs, eight 
of whom were Senecas, the last being Do-ne-ho-gd-weh, or Open 
door. He says: ‘ The Senecas were made the doorkeepers of the 
Long House, and having imposed upon Do-ne-ho-ga-weh, the eighth 
sachem, the duty of watching the door, they gave to him a sub- 
