"And what do you think, yourself, Peter?"
"I pelief what Tawannears says. Idt is goodt for him to pelief idt. Idt hurts nopody, eh? So I pelief. Ja, dot's goodt!"
CHAPTER XXVI
THE END OF THE TRAIL
The forest trees and the brown grass stubble of the meadow beneath their skeleton boughs were powdered lightly with snow, except where a tiny fire burned, its smoke floating upward into the overhanging tree-tops. On the far side of the field, backed by the roofs of the village, was massed the population of Deonundagaa, men, women and children. Besides the fire the robes of the seven surviving Royanehs of the Senecas, headed by Ganeodiyo, each with his assistant behind him, made a splash of vivid color.
Dimly through the bare foliage I glimpsed the long file of the Royanehs of the other four nations—the Mohawks, Dagoeoga, the Shield People; the Onondagas, Hodesannogeta, the Name-Bearers; the Oneidas, Neardeondargowar, Great Tree People; the Cayugas, Sonushogwatowar, Great Pipe People. The Tuscaroras, sixth nation in the great league, had no representation in the Hoyarnagowar, because the founders had created only so many names, or seats, and no Iroquois would have thought of altering the framework they built; but a group of Tuscarora chieftains followed in the train of the Royanehs, mute witnesses by right to what should transpire.
I have seen many ceremonies in my day. I have watched the Pope celebrate mass in St. Peter's. I have attended at the mummery of the French Court, with the splendor of Versailles and the Louvre for background. But I have never seen aught more imposing than the rites of the condoling council of the Iroquois, the ceremonies by which at one and the same time they express their appreciation of a great man who has died and install his successor, beginning with the ceremony Deyughnyonkwarakta, "At the Wood's Edge."
Slowly, at a sign from Hoyowenato, the Keeper of the Wampum, the long file of the Royanehs paced out from the forest and formed in a half-circle opposite the little group of Seneca Royanehs, with the fire betwixt them. Then Ganeodiyo, spokesman for the Senecas, stepped forward with arms outflung in welcome to the visitors. His trained orator's voice rolled in the measured cadences of the stately ritual, opening with the sentence—
"Onenh weghniserade wakatyerenkowa desawennawenrate ne kenteyurhoton!"
"Now, today, I have been greatly startled by your voices coming through the forest to this opening."