164 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Others, but more like that of our territories. Except by courtesy 

 they have no votes, nor had they any title to the lands on which 

 they lived till they secured their present reservation. Their 

 council name is Tu-hah-te-ehn-yah-wah-kou, Those who em- 

 brace the Great Tree; perhaps because the Oneidas received 

 them. The Indian idea is that the Five Nations are the house, 

 the Tuscaroras like a woodhouse, built outside but attached. 



In describing their symbols in 1736, the Onondaga device was 

 a cabin on top of a hill, the Mohawk a flint and steel, the Oneida 

 a stone in the fork of a tree, the Cayuga a great pipe, and the 

 Seneca a mountain. Charlevoix made a curious but not surpris- 

 ing mistake in these signatures as made in 1700. Indian draw- 

 ing is not yet artistic, and he said, '' The savages signed, each 

 one putting the mark of his nation at the foot of the treaty. The 

 Onondagas and Tsonnontouans traced a spider, the Goyogouins 

 a calumet, etc." The former were hills. 



The relationship of the nations has sometimes changed, but at 

 present the Mohawks, Onondagas and Senecas are the elder 

 brothers ; the Oneidas, Cayugas and Tuscaroras the younger. 

 Pyrlaeus said that at first the Mohawks were the elder brother, 

 the Oneidas eldest son, and the Senecas youngest son. Then the 

 Tuscaroras became youngest son. The Mohawks were always 

 considered the oldest brother, and the present arrangement is at 

 least 150 years old. When chiefs die or are to be raised in either 

 of these, the opposite brotherhood takes charge of all the cere- 

 monies and installs the new chiefs. In Canada now, where every 

 nation and chief corresponds to those in New York, there is a 

 difference in voting. The older and younger brothers separately 

 determine what their vote shall be, and, if they disagree, the 

 Onondagas, as fire-keepers, have the casting vote. In this case 

 the Onondagas sit in the center of the council house, and the 

 representatives of the two brotherhoods are on opposite sides. 

 Each announces its vote, and the fire-keepers do the same. The 

 latter are supposed to kindle and cover the fire. There is a 

 similar division of clans for games and feasts. 



The names by which the league was called are less than some 



