or duties of any one of them the functions of a presiding officer.

The Chiefs of the Mohawks and Senecas, who sit on the left of the house,
initiate discussion on all questions. The debating is then transferred
to the opposite side of the house, where are seated the Chiefs of the
Tuscaroras, Oneidas, and Cayugas, and is carried on by these Chiefs. The
Chiefs of the Onondagas, who are called "Fire-Keepers" (of the origin
of the name "Fire-Keeper," I will treat further, anon) then speak
to the motion, or upon the measure, and, finally, decide everything;
and they are, in view of this power of finality of decision with all
questions, regarded as the most important Chiefs among the confederated
tribes. The decision of the "Fire-Keepers" does not, by any means,
always show concurrence in what may have been the _consensus_
of opinion expressed by previous speakers, very frequently, indeed,
embodying sentiments directly opposite to the weight of the judgment
with those speakers. As illustrating, more pointedly, the arbitrary
powers committed to these Chiefs, they may import into the debate a
fresh and hitherto unbroached line of discussion, and, following it,
may argue from a quite novel standpoint, and formulate a decision based
upon some utterly capricious leaning of their own. I have not been able
to learn whether the decision of these Chiefs, to be valid, requires to be
established by their unanimous voice, or simply by a majority of the body.

The reason or cogency of the system of debate followed in the Indian
Council has not seemed to me clearly demonstrable; nor is the cause for
the honour attaching to the Chiefs of the Mohawks and Senecas, and of
the Onondagas, respectively, of commencing and closing discussion, very
explicable. I believe, however, that the principle of kinship subsisting
between the tribes, the Chiefs of which are thus singled out for these
duties, governs, in some way, the practice adopted; and am led, also,