p. 62). Before the Book of Rites came into my possession I had often
heard the hymn repeated, or sung, by different individuals, in slightly
varying forms. The Onondaga version, given me on the Syracuse
Reservation, contains a line, "_Negwiyage teskenonhenhne_" which is
not found in the Canienga MS. It is rendered "I come to greet the
children." The affection of the Indians for their children, which is
exhibited in various passages of the Book, is most apparent in the
Onondaga portion.

_Kayanerenh_. This word is variously rendered,--"the peace," "the
law," and "the league," (see _ante_, p. 33). Here it evidently
stands for _Kayancrenhkowa_, "the Great Peace," which is the name
usually given by the Kanonsionni to their league, or federal
constitution.

_Deskenonghweronne_, or in the modern French orthography,
_teskenonhweronne_, "we come to greet and thank," is a good example
of the comprehensive force of the Iroquois tongue. Its root is
_nonhwe_, or _nanwe_, which is found in _kenonhws_, I
love, like, am pleased with--the initial syllable _ke_ being the
first personal pronoun. In the frequentative form this becomes
_kenonhweron_, which has the meaning of "I salute and thank," i.e.,
I manifest by repeated acts my liking or gratification. The _s_
prefixed to this word is the sign of the reiterative form:
_skenonhweron_, "_again_ I greet and thank." The terminal
syllable _ne_ and the prefixed _te_ are respectively the signs
of the motional and the cislocative forms,--"I _come hither_ again
to greet and thank." A word of six syllables, easily pronounced (and in
the Onondaga dialect reduced to five) expresses fully and forcibly the
meaning for which eight not very euphonious English words are