Note 44 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (continued 9)

De LaMothe Cadillac (ca. 1703), in speaking of the tribes in the neighborhood of “Missilimakinak et Pays Situés au dela,” writes that at the feasts held periodically for the propitiation of the names of the dead of the entire community they erect a cabin about 120 feet in length of pieces of bark which are new and which have not been used before for any other purpose; at either end of the structure they set a pole, and another, exceeding these in height, in the middle; these poles are greased, oiled, and painted; and at the top end of each is fixed a prize, which belongs to the first who can reach and seize it with the hand. (Margry, Découv., V, 104, 1883.) A similar erection of a pole, which was greased and which held a prize at its top, is mentioned in an account of a feast for the dead held by the Nipissings, Hurons, and the Chippewa in 1642. (Jesuit Relations for 1642, 95, ed. 1858.) It was on the top of a similar pole that the eagle was perched at which Hatʻhondas was required to shoot to test his orenda or magic power.