2:50 TRAVELS THROUGH UPPER CANADA: 
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the former are only used on trilling occasions, 
the latter never but on very grand and solemn 
ones. Whenever a- .conference, or a talk as 
* ■ 4 , 
they term it, is about to be held with any 
neighbouring tribe, or whenever any treaty of 
national compact is about to be made, one of 
these belts, differing in some respect from every 
other that has been made before, is immedi¬ 
ately constructed ; each person in the assembly 
holds this belt in his hand whilst he delivers 
his speech, and when he has ended, he pre~ 
sents it to the next person that rises, by which 
ceremony each individual is reminded, that it 
behoves him to be cautious in his discourse, as 
all he says will be faithfully recorded by the 
belt. The talk being over, the belt is deposited 
A 
in the hands of the principal chief. 
On the ratification of a treaty, very broad 
splendid belts are reciprocally given by the 
contracting parties, which are deposited amongst 
the other belts belonging to the nation. At 
stated intervals they are ail produced to the 
nation, and the occasions upon which they 
were made are mentioned; if they relate to a 
talk, one of the chiefs repeats the substance 
of what was said over them ; if to a treaty, the 
terms of it are recapitulated. Certain of the 
squaws, also, are entrusted with the belts, 
whose business it is to relate the history of 
each one of them to the younger branches of 
