34-6 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 kwe, three times at intervals 

 ii 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 ao days' dead feast. 



In the strings described to the writer 10 of dark purple beads were 

 ■u?ed if the chief's office was vacant by death. If he had lost his 



