COUNCILS AND CEREMONIES OF ADOPTION OF NEW YORK INDIANS 437 



much Joy And as a token of our Rejoycing We present a few Beavers 

 to your Lady for Pin Money, and Say withall that it is Customary 

 for a Brother upon his Marryage to invite his Brethern to be Merry 

 and Dance. O'Callaghan, 5 :6z|.o 



Of course the happy groom responded " and Ordered them some 

 Barrls of Beer to be merry with all and dance which they did ac- 

 cording to their Custom." At every council, however, the dead 

 and the bereaved were remembered. Sometimes there was a special 

 mourning. At a conference in Albany in 1702, "theSachims of 

 ye 5 Nations appeare d before his Excellencys lodging at ye place 

 prepared for their reception sung a sorrowful Song, which they had 

 made upon ye death of his late Maj ty King William ye third of 

 blessed memory." — O'Callaghan, 4 1986 



Thomas Clarkson gave, in his biography of William Penn, an 

 account of his great treaty and of the way in which he was dressed. 

 In describing the Indian attendants he mentioned the horn, to which 

 reference is made in the condoling council as an emblem of au- 

 thority. He said : 



One of the sachems, who was the chief of them, then put upon 

 his own head a kind of chaplet, in which there appeared a small 

 horn. This, as among the primitive European nations, and accord- 

 ing to Scripture language, was an emblem of kingly power ; and 

 whenever the chief, who had a right to wear it, put it on, it was 

 understood that the place was made sacred, and the persons of all 

 present inviolable. Upon putting on this horn the Indians threw 

 down their bows and arrows, and seated themselves around their 

 chiefs, in the form of a half-moon upon the ground. Aborigines' 

 Com. p. 36 



In New York Indian councils, the chiefs do not seem to have 

 worn any distinctive badge. In battle, war chiefs wore certain 

 feathers that they might be recognized, but we have no intimation 

 of any distinct mark for principal chiefs. In councils it was not 

 needed. Even the introduction of medals hardly affected this. 

 Most sachems had them, but then so did war chiefs and brave war- 

 riors. They were more marks of ability and actions than of office, 

 a recognition of worth, but conferring no rank. This is one of the 

 curious resemblances in our national political system and that of 

 the Iroquois. Unquestionably exercising great power their sachems 

 had no official distinction in dress. The horns of power conferred 

 upon them were but figures of speech. They received authority 





