NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tutored Indian tribes. Reaching a Mohawk village, or cantonment, 

 he camped on the outskirts thereof. He was discovered and 

 noted as a stranger, and though informally invited by individual 

 Indians to partake of their hospitality, he silently and invariably 

 declined. His strange conduct was observed. It was surmised 

 that he was queer though harmless. 1 He was noticed to be always 

 talking about something, and constantly handling belts and strings 

 made of curious white and purple shells. The head men of the 

 village ordered strict watch to be kept over his every movement, 

 and every word he uttered to be carefully and strictly noted, so 

 that it might be determined what kind of a man he was. It was 

 ascertained that these belts and strings of shells related to some 

 sort of a league, its principles, its laws and ceremonial observances, 

 also that with certain belts and strings he had formulated a tribal, 

 or international code of etiquette, a conventional decorum to be 

 observed towards each other or their representatives. 



All this being duly and fully reported to the head man or patri- 

 arch of the village, he properly apprehended that the stranger was 

 no ordinary person, and determined to invite and receive him as 

 his guest, and being already informed as to the observance required 

 to invite and receive distinguished guests, he sent a special mes- 

 senger to the stranger asking him for the loan of certain of his shell 

 belts and strings. Having obtained them, with all the exacted 

 observances, he formally invited and received the stranger into 

 his lodge. He gave him the place of honor, seating him upon a 

 throne of skins, similar to his own. He informed the stranger 

 that he was to be his brother, that they were to have equal rights 

 to everything in the lodge and that equal respect should be paid 

 by the people to both, and that they should jointly govern the 

 people. 



This much pleased Hy-ent-wat-ha and he accepted the proffered 

 contract in the same spirit, which to him seemed to govern the 

 tender. But to the extreme mortification of Hy-ent-wat-ha no 

 inquiry was made of him as to whom he might be, who his people 

 were and where and on what mission he was bent. He complained 

 to his brother of this neglect and told him it was his (the brother's) 

 duty to send out runners to look for the smoke arising from the 

 camp fires of his people and finding them to go in and ascertain 

 the news. The brother (he is called brother, for he is yet not named) 



1 His strange conduct may have given rise to one of the translations of his name, He 

 who seeks his mind knowing where to find it. 



