420 NEW YORK StATfi MUSEUM 



carpet for him to sit. You clean the carpet for him to sit and 

 nothing evil can fall on the carpet. They have furnished two 

 prominent women and having a broom so that it would be clean. 

 This was in the lifetime of To-do-da-ho, and the Five Nations fur- 

 nish him a stick, laying close by where he sits — ^represents as a 

 limited power given to him by the Five Nations. If he sees some- 

 thing evil coming he would take the stick and throw away, and if 

 the stick not strong enough then he would notify the Five Nations 

 to come help him; that the animal and wild peoples come prepared 

 for war. The To-do-da-ho would speak to the animal and ask: 

 What is thy business coming here without our knowledge? 



Fig. 252 One heart of the Five Nations — that if any hurt of 

 any animal would pierce that heart, then they would all feel it — all 

 the Five Nations. This was in Hi-a-wat-ha's belt. That they are 

 a united people. This is the original Hi-a-wat-ha belt — a record of 

 the first agreement to make the league. 



Fig. 244 Between Bastable building and the corner of Genesee 

 and Warren streets, Syracuse, was held the last council which com- 

 pleted the league. Both Hi-a-wat-ha and To-do-da-ho were there. 

 300 years (ago). 



Represents an everlasting tree — always keep growing, reaching 

 to heaven that all nations may see it; and under they set a general 

 fire to burn forever — the council place of the Five Nations — and 

 that the council fire is to be kept at the Onondagas, and the Onon- 

 dagas are the expounders of the law. 



After they had ratified — it was understood — we look far away and 

 we see a darkness, and in the darkness an unknown and strange 

 face, and they could not understand what it was — and it came to 

 be interpreted that we would be forced to adopt an unknown law — 

 but it was coming before that generation passed away, and finally 

 their heads would roll and roll away, and after a time they would 

 recover their bodies, and then they would embrace the law that 

 was once lost to them, and the tree would grow forever. After 

 they will restore the original law their confederation will be more 

 permanent than the first one, and their original law will remain 

 forever. They say that one of the women said: " You can use all 

 the water of the ocean to wash away the Indian blood, and when 

 you have done there is just as much water left in the ocean as 

 before you began — so the law — you can take from it parts of the 

 Indian law, and put another in its place, but it will come again 

 and last forever." 



This was the last belt that was made at that ratifying time. When 

 the belt was ready it was said by one of the orators to that council, 

 "This is the last belt which we make confirming the laws w^hich 

 we have just adopted," and he encouraged the people of the Five 

 Nations to instruct them with the meaning of the wampum to serve 



