Wampum

contract sealed with the smoking of the calumet and the burial of the hatchet in the midst. Among the Six Nations, whenever the council failed to adjust the difficulty or when for any other reason peace was to be interrupted, war was proclaimed by striking a tomahawk painted red and ornamented with black wampum, into the war post in each village of the league.[15]

To illustrate what we have said, we subjoin the following account of an interview between Sir William Johnson, the noted Indian agent and the Six Nations, among whom this ceremony survived even after their decline. "At a meeting of the Six Nations and their allies at Fort Johnson, Feb. 18, 1756, Sir William Johnson said:

Brethren of the Six Nations,

I have heard with great concern that a war party of the Senecas, the most remote nation of the confederacy, have had a considerable misunderstanding with their brethren the English to the southward, which has been fatal to some of that nation. I am extremely unable to expres