WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 45^ 



styled it Hen-nun-do-mi¥-seh, literally a mourning council, and his 

 description is good as far as it goes. Horatio Hale devoted the 

 Iroquois hook of rites to this great ceremony, giving some songs in 

 full, but also omitting some pecuHar and prominent ceremonies. 

 In a paper on an " Iroquois condoling council," read before the 

 Royal society of Canada in 1895, he gave a full and excellent ac- 

 count This was published in the transactions for that year. The 

 Onondagas term it Ho-fe-ne-ko-kah-iui-wax. The writer attended a 

 condolence held by them in 1895. His account will be found in the 

 Journal of American folk-lore, 8:313. His description of a Tusca- 

 rora condolence appears in 4:39 of the same. These will be sum- 

 marized, as wampum is not conspicuous throughout. 



The Elder Brothers take charge for the Younger, and vice versa, 

 and send out invitation strings with tally sticks of days. The con- 

 dolence is held in the council house of the mourning nation, or one 

 lent to it for the occasion. In 1895 the Onondagas gave the use 

 of theirs to the mourning Oneidas and others, but took principal 

 charge of the ceremonies themselves. In the same way chiefs are 

 often lent to sing* the condoling songs in an emergency. The con- 

 dolers formerly assembled at some distance from the town, but now 

 on some road leading to the council house, till summoned to pro- 

 ceed. Formerly at the wood's edge, but now half way to the coun- 

 cil house, a fire is built, and there the mourners wait for their visit- 

 ing friends, who march on in double file, the leaders singing the 

 condoling song. At the fire the songs are continued, addresses 

 made, and the invitation wampum is returned. In due time the 

 mourners silently lead the way to the council house, the condoling 

 chiefs and friends soon following, singing as before. As the song 

 contains the names and memory of the 52 original chiefs, it is 

 continued for some time in the council house, where the mourners 

 sit at one end, the condolers at the other. Then a cord is stretched 

 across the center of the house, and a curtain hung from side to side. 

 This separates the two brotherhoods. The visitors lay a stick 

 across the benches, and place seven bunches of wampum on this, 

 singing for some time. The curtain is then removed, and a long 

 song follows, the wampum being carried to the mourners at inter- 



