22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Hayonwhatha heard the messenger and gathered up his goods 

 and went into the village and when he had entered the chief's house 

 the chief said, " Seat yourself on the opposite side of the fire so that 

 you may have an understanding of all that we do here in this place." 



Then Hayonhwatha sat there for seven days and the chiefs and 

 people talked without arriving at any decision. No word was asked 

 Hayonhwatha and he was not consulted. No report was made 

 officially to him. So he did not hear what they talked about. 



On the eighteenth night a runner came from the south. He was 

 from the nation residing on the seashore. He told the chiefs of 

 the eminent man who had now come to the town on the Mohawk 

 river at the lower falls. Then the messenger said : " We have 

 heard of the dream of Onodaga which told of the great man who 

 came from the north. Now another great man who shall now go 

 forward in haste to meet him shall change his course and go east- 

 ward to meet in the Flinty land village (Kanyakahake), the great 

 man. There shall the two council together and establish the Great 

 Peace." So said the messenger from the salt water seashore, who 

 came to tell Hayonwhatha to journey east. 



So the chiefs of the town where Hayonhwatha was staying chose 

 five men as an escort for Hayonhwatha. They must go with him 

 until he reached the house where Dekanawida was present. So 

 then on the next day the chief himself went with the party and 

 watched carefully the health of Hayonhwatha. The journey lasted 

 five days and on the fifth day the party stopped on the outskirts of 

 the town where Dekanawida was staying and then they built a fire. 

 This was the custom, to make a smoke so that the town might know 

 that visitors were approaching and send word that they might enter 

 without danger to their lives. The smoke was the signal of friends 

 approaching. 1 The Mohawks (People of the Flinty Country) knew 

 the meaning of the signal so they sent messengers and invited the 

 party into the village. 



When Hayonhwatha had entered the house where the people had 

 gathered the chief asked him whom he would like to see most. 

 Then Ayonhwatha answered, " I came to see a very great man 

 who lately came from the north." The chief said, " I have with you 

 two men who shall escort you to the house where Dekanawida is 



1 In those days it was necessary to build a fire on the outskirts of a village 

 about to be entered. If necessary to kill an animal for food, its pelt must 

 be hung on a tree in plain sight because it is the property of the nation in 

 whose territory it is killed. This information was given to me by Albert 

 Cusick and Seth Newhouse. 



