412 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
hand, this plainly proves that it had no reference to the original 
league. Itis probably not 150 years old. There are good pictures 
of all in the census of 1900. Gen. Carrington was special agent for the 
census of 1890, and his farther notes will be credited to Thomas 
Donaldson, the compiler of the report on the Six Nations of New 
York: 
Fig. 244 represents the widest belt known, one of 50 rows wide. 
Through a slight mistake of the writer this was reported to Mr 
Holmes as 49 rows. It is 14.75 inches wide and about 35 inches 
long. Though not of the original length it has not been diminished 
since it was first pictured. The pattern is decidedly modern as well 
as the material. It is made on small buckskin thongs with a hard, 
red thread. The interpretation of 1886 was, “ The second belt used 
by -the principal chief of ‘thesSix Nations: Very old. Mist 
Donaldson’s note is similar. He calls it “ Wing or Dust Fan of 
bf 
Presidentia of Six Nations.”’ Also “ the wing mat used by the head 
man to shield him from the dust while presiding at the council.” 
It seems to represent an alliance actual or proposed, and to be of the 
variety termed chain belts. 
Fig. 232 is another modern belt of the same date, termed by Mr 
Donaldson, “ Presidentia of the Iroquois, about 1540.” A series 
of dark points inclose open white diamonds, signifying nations or 
towns. It is properly a chain belt, showing a completed covenant. 
When Gen. Carrington photographed it in 1890, it had lost nothing 
since first seen by the writer. Before it again came into the latter’s 
hands it had been reduced from 16 to 14 diamonds. It is 45 rows 
wide or 13.5 inches, and was incomplete in length when examined 
in 1878. ‘The material is as in the last, and both seem to have been 
made by one person. ‘The note of 1886 says, “ The first belt used 
by the principal chief of the Six Nations. Very old.” Both these 
were secured for the state in 1898, and they are the broadest on 
record. Unique in every way their modern origin is at once ap- 
parent to any careful observer, but no definite date can be given 
them. One reason for this failure of a true tradition is very clear. 
The belts were brought to Onondaga in 1847 and placed in La 
Fort’s hands. He died a year later, and, if familiar with them him- 
