with the
coming of a new day he was as much an Iroquois in spirit as ever. Nor
could he see that Willet was less keen about it and the three proceeded
promptly to the council grove where a multitude was already hastening.
There was, too, a great buzz of talk, as the Iroquois here in the vale,
the very heart of their country, did not show the taciturnity in which
the red man so often takes refuge in the presence of the white.

The fourteen Onondaga chiefs, Tododaho at their head and Tonessaah at
his right, were gathered in the grove, and the warriors of the allied
nations approached, headed by their chiefs, nine for the Mohawks, ten
for the Oneidas, nine for the Cayugas, and eight for the Senecas, while
the Tuscaroras, who were a new nation in the League, had none at all,
but spoke through their friends, the Oneidas, within whose lands they
had been allowed to settle. And when the roll of the nations of the
Hodenosaunee was called it was not the Onondagas, Keepers of the Council
Fire, who were called first, although they were equal in honor, and
leaders in council, but the fierce and warlike Mohawks. Then came the
Onondagas, after them the numerous Senecas, followed by the Oneidas,
with the Cayugas next and the sachemless Tuscaroras last, but filled
with pride that they, wanderers from their ancient lands, and not large
in numbers, had shown themselves so valiant and enduring that the
greatest of all Indian leagues, the Hodenosaunee, should be willing to
admit them as a nation.

Behind the sachems stood the chiefs, the two names not being synonymous
among the Iroquois, and although the name of the Mohawks was called
first the Onondagas were masters of the ceremonies, were, in fact, the
priests of the Hodenosaunee, and their first chief, Tododaho, was the
first chief of all the League. Yet the Senecas, who though superior in
numbers were inferior in chiefs, also had an office, being Door Keepers
of the Long House, while the Onondagas were the keepers in the larger
sense. The eighth sachem of the Senecas, Donehogaweh, had the actual
physical keeping of the door, when the fifty sachems met within, and he
also had an assistant who obeyed all his orders, and who, upon occasion,
acted as a herald or messenger. But the Onondaga sachem, Honowenato,
kept the wampum.

The more Robert saw of the intertwined religious, military and political
systems of the Hodenosaunee, the more he admired them, and he missed
nothing as the Onon