length was passed
to every chief, who held it a moment or two before handing it to his
neighbors. It was then laid on a table in the center of the room, the
ends touching. This signified harmony among the Six Nations. All the
chiefs had been summoned to this place by belts of wampum sent to the
different tribes by runners appointed by the Onondagas, to whom this
honor belonged. All treaties had to be ratified by the exchange of
belts, and now this was done by the assembled chiefs.

Timmendiquas, as an honorary chief of the Mohawks, and as the real head
of a brave and allied nation, was present throughout the council. His
advice was asked often, and when he gave it the others listened with
gravity and deference. The next day the village played a great game of
lacrosse, which was invented by the Indians, and which had been played
by them for centuries before the arrival of the white man. In this case
the match was on a grand scale, Mohawks and Cayugas against Onondagas
and Senecas.

The game began about nine o'clock in the morning in a great natural
meadow surrounded by forest. The rival sides assembled opposite each
other and bet heavily. All the stakes, under the law of the game, were
laid upon the ground in heaps here, and they consisted of the articles
most precious to the Iroquois. In these heaps were rifles, tomahawks,
scalping knives, wampum, strips of colored beads, blankets, swords,
belts, moccasins, leggins, and a great many things taken as spoil in
forays on the white settlements, such is small mirrors, brushes of
various kinds, boots, shoes, and other things, the whole making a vast
assortment.

These heaps represented great wealth to the Iroquois, and the older
chiefs sat beside them in the capacity of stakeholders and judges.

The combatants, ranged in two long rows, numbered at least five hundred
on each side, and already they began to show an excitement approaching
that which animated them when they would go into battle. Their eyes
glowed, and the muscles on their naked backs and chests were tense for
the spring. In order to leave their limbs perfectly free for effort they
wore no clothing at all, except a little apron reaching from the waist
to the knee.

The extent of the playground was marked off by two pair of "byes" like
those used in cricket, planted about thirty rods apart. But the goals of
each side were only about thirty feet apart.

At a signal from the oldest of the chiefs the contestant