454 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM "' 



soon as possible another shall be put in his place. This we say, we 

 three brothers. 



Fig. 228 has some white beads at the end of the strings, as the 



last speech concludes with a call for the new chief. 



7 Now another thing we say, we Younger Brothers. We will 

 gird the belt on you with the pouch, and the next death will re- 

 ceive the pouch, whenever you shall know that there is death among 

 us, when the fire is made and the smoke is rising. This we say and 

 do, we three brothers. Now I have finished. Now show me the 

 man. 



After attending a condolence himself, the writer persuaded Mr 

 Cusick to arrange a full set of bunches like those he had seen used, 

 and to give him any needed information. In this and every other 

 effort to put on record the customs of his people, his aid was given 

 at once. Explanations of the song are omitted here, and the bunch 

 to be distributed has been mentioned elsewhere, yet it may be said 

 that being " valued at twenty " refers to the wampum atonement 

 for life, and the horns to official insignia. 



In Ely S. Parker's will, dated Aug. 21, 1895, he thus disposed 

 of his wampum received at a condolence: "The wampum in this 

 box is the credentials of my sachemship, and is designated by the 

 Indians as the ' Great horns.' It is the wish of Amanda Poodry 

 of the Tonawanda reservation, and the matron of the Seneca Wolf 

 tribe, that when I die (if I die in New York city) that this wampum 

 be placed upon my coflin until the grave is reached, when it will be 

 taken off and handed to Mrs Harriet Maxwell Converse, who will 

 take the earliest opportunity to restore it to Mrs Amanda Poodry.'* 

 On the cover of the box was this: " Official wampum. Donehogawa. 

 Sacred wampum." 



Joseph Brant wrote of a council with western Indians in 1788: 

 " As they had lost three of their chiefs, we went through our ancient 

 custom of condoling with them, by giving about 10,000 wampum, 

 as we could not proceed with our public business till such time as 

 that ceremony was over." This merely expressed sympathy. A 

 letter from Cornplanter to Major Craig is more to the point. It 

 was dated Dec. 3, 1795, a time when some chiefs had resigned and 

 others had been killed. He needed wampum in filling their places, 

 and said, '' Now father take Pitty on me & Send me 40 Dollars 



