WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 44I 



and an Algonquin, with an unusually fine belt. At a later councilj, 

 that year, a Mohawk " took a Frenchman on one side, an Algon- 

 quin and Huron on the other, and holding them bound with his 

 arms they danced in cadence, and sang a song of peace with one 

 strong voice." This kind of pantomime was strikingly employed 

 at the reception of the French at Onondaga in 1655. With his 

 third present Garakontie took Chaumonot by the hand, made him 

 rise and led him to the midst of the council. Then he " throws him- 

 self on his neck, .embraces him, hugs him, and, holding in his hand 

 the beautiful collar, making a belt of it for him, protests in the face 

 of heaven and earth that he wished to embrace the faith as he em- 

 braced the father." A Cayuga chief also sang with his present. 

 " He explained what he meant by his Gaiandere, which signifies, 

 among them very excellent thing. He said that that which we call 

 among ourselves the faith, ought to be called among them 

 Gaiandere, and in order the better to signify this he made the first 

 present of porcelain." — Relation, 1656 



The speaker held the belt while speaking. When the Rev. Mr 

 Kirkland stopped at the Onondaga council house in 1764, one oi 

 the Indians with him rose and took the belt in his left hand, leaving 

 the right free for gestures. He spoke for nearly an hour. "At the 

 end of every sentence they expressed their assent, if pleasing to 

 them, by crying out, one after another or 20 at once, at-hoo-to-yes-ke^ 

 i. e. * It is so'; 'very true'." — Lothrop, p. 163. After this a 

 response was made. At the Seneca coimcil house the belt was 

 handed round. Some stroked it with the hand and said a few words ; 

 others only looked steadfastly at it. This took full 20 minutes. — - 

 Lothrop, p. 167 



These marks of approval were customary. The Pennsylvania 

 colonial records describe the giving of a belt by the governor in 1731^ 

 as a league and chain of friendship with the Six Nations. " The- 

 Indians, on receiving the Belts of Wampum & the Present, ex- 

 pressed their Thankfulness by a harmonious Sound peculiar to them^ 

 in which those of each Nation now present joyned alternately, & 

 they repeated the same with great Seeming Satisfaction." 



Some peculiar forms were used in early councils which have not 



