HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



and also cheer up thy mind. Now, more than this, we again set thee 

 in order around the place where we have re-kindled the fire for thee.' 



"Now, let the Three Brothers say it, 'Do thou again transact the 

 business upon which thou wert hitherto engaged in promoting the 

 welfare of the posterity of thy families [thy ohwachiras].' 



"Thus, furthermore, let it be that for one poor short day, thou 

 mayst continue to think in peace, this one, my offspring, thou noble 

 one, my weanling. 



"In this manner, then, let them do it, the Three Brothers, so de- 

 nominated ever since they were in the prime growth of their affairs, 

 (I say). 



"Now, more than this, do thou know it, my offspring, my weanling, 

 thou noble one, their word is now going hence to thee, (I say)." 



ELEVENTH WAMPUM STRING 



"Now, another thing, (I say). It is that wherein the Perfector of 

 our Faculties who dwelleth in the sky, established it, in that he desired 

 that he may have assistants even down to the earth; that these shall 

 devote their care to the number of matters which pertain to the earth 

 and which I have ordained, he says, one and all. It is that, in fact, 

 that he caused the body of our mother — the woman — to be of great 

 worth. He designed that she shall be entrusted with the several 

 duties pertaining to the birth, the becoming, of men, and in the next 

 place, that she shall circle around the fire in preparing food, that she 

 shall have the care of that by which life shall be sustained and sup- 

 ported, and so the power to breathe is fortified. That also the warriors 

 shall be her assistants, (I say). 



"And that, too, is a calamity, that, it may be, the Great Destroyer 

 will make a fine stroke there in the ranks of our mothers, that he will 

 snatch away one there, and so her body shall fall. The evil is that a 

 long file of persons will fall away, which, indeed, would have come in 

 the many-fold lines of grandchildren who would have been born in 

 the future from her. Moreover, her assistants, the warriors, just 

 stand around listlessly, but grieving. And now that one, upon whom 

 they so much depended, is now, indeed, very probably, floating away 

 to the unknown (even as flieth away the crane). Now, more than 

 this, the minds of all those who still remain have fallen, (I say). 



"So now, furthermore, the Three Brothers have perfected their 

 preparations, and, indeed, let them say it, 'Now, then, we raise up 

 their minds again and cheer them up.' That, indeed, shall come to 

 pass; they will now again devote themselves to their cares and their 

 duties. 



[176] 



