"At another time the four messengers said to Handsomelake that they would show him the destroyer of Villages (Washington), of whom you have so often heard. Upon the road leading to heaven he could see a light, far away in the distance, moving to and fro. Its brightness far exceeded the bril iancy of the noonday sun. They told him the journey was as fol ows: First they came to a cold spring, which was a resting place; from this point they proceeded into pleasant fairy grounds, which spread away in every direction: soon they reached heaven; the light was dazzling: berries of every description grew in vast abundance: the size and quality were such that a single berry was more than sufficient to appease the appetite: a sweet fragrance perfumed the air; fruits of every kind met the eye. The inmates of this celestial abode spent their time in amusement and repose. No evil could enter there. None in heaven ever transgress again: families are reunited and dwel together in harmony: they possessed a bodily form, the senses and the remembrance of earthly life; but no white man ever enters heaven. Thus they said. He looked and saw an inclosure upon a plain, just without the entrance of heaven.
Within it was a fort. Here he saw the 'destroyer of villages,' walking to and fro within the inclosure. His countenance indicated a great and good man. They said to Handsomelake, 'The man you see is the only pale face that ever left the earth; he was kind to you when on the settlement of the great difficulty between the Americans and the Great Crown (Great Britain), you were abandoned to the mercy of your enemies. The Crown told the great American that as for his al ies, the Indians, he might kil them if he liked. The great American judged that this would be cruel and unjust; he believed they were made by the Great Spirit, and were entitled to the enjoyments of life; he was kind to you and extended over you his protection: for this reason he has been allowed to leave the earth. But he is never permitted to go into the presence of the Great Spirit.
Although alone, he is perfectly happy. All faithful Indians pass by him as they go to heaven. They see him and recognize him, but pass on in silence. No words ever pass his lips.
"Frieads and relatives, it was by the influence of this great man that we were spared as a people, and yet live. Had he not granted as his protection, where would we have been? Perished--al perished.
"The four messengers further said to Handsomelake that they were fearful that unless the people repent and obey his consmands, the forbearance and patience of the Creator would be exhausted; that He would grow angry with them and cause their increase to cease.
"Our Creator, made light and darkness; He made the sun to heat and shine over the world; He made the moon, also, to shine by night and to cool the world, if the sun make it too hot by day. The keeper of the clouds, by direction of the Great Spirit, wil then cease to act. The keeper of the springs and running brooks will cease to rule them for the good of man. The sun wil cease to fulfil its office. Total darkness will then cover the earth. A great smoke will rise and spread over the face of the earth. Then wil come out of it all monsters and poisonous animals created by the evil-minded, and they, with the wicked upon the earth, wil perish together.
"But before this dreadful time shall come, the Great Spirit will take home to Himself all the good and faithful. They will lay themselves down to sleep, and from this sleep of death they will arise and go home to their Creator. Thus they said.
"I have done. I close thus, that you may remember and understand the fate which awaits the earth, the unfaithful and the unbelieving. Our Creator looks down upon us. The four Beings from above see us. They witness with pleasure this assemblage, and rejoice at the object for which it is gathered. It is now forty-eight years since we first began to listen to the renewed wil of our Creator. I have been unable, during the time alloted to me, to rehearse al the savings of Ga-ne-o-di-yo (Handsomelake); I regret very much that you cannot hear them al .
"Counselors, warriors, women and children, I have done. I thank you al for your attendance, and for your kind and patient attention. May the Great Spirit, who rules all things, watch over and protect you from every harm and danger while you travel the journey of life. May the Great Spirit bless al , and bestow upon you life health, peace and prosperity: and may you in turn appreciate His great goodness. This is al ."
Sketches of an Iroquois Council, or Condolence.
In giving the description of the condolence, I have chosen the fol owing writings of Mr. G. S. Riley, of Rochester, to-wit: A grand council of the confederate Iroquois was held Octobcr 1, 1845, at the Indian councilhouse, on the Tonawanda reservation, in the county of Genesee. Its proceedings occupied three days. It embraced representatives from all the six nations--the Mohawk, the Onondaga, the Seneca, the Oneida, the Cayuga, and the Tuscarora. It is the only one of the kind which has been held for a number of years, and is probably the last which wil ever be assembled with a full representation of the confederate nations.
The Indians from abroad arrived at the council-grounds, or the immediate vicinity, two days previous, and one of the most interesting spectacles of the occasion was the entry of the different nations upon the domain and hospitality of the Senecas, on whose grounds the council was to be held. The representation of the Mohawks, coming as they did from Canada, was necessarily small. The Onondagas, with acting Todotahhoh, of the confederacy, and his two counselors, made an exceedingly creditable appearance. Nor was the array of the Tuscaroras, in point of numbers, at least, deficient in attractive and improving features.
We cal ed upon and were presented to Black Smith, the most influential and authoritative of the Seneca sachems. He is about sixty years old, is somewhat portly, is easy enough in his manners, and is wel disposed, and even kindly towards al who convinced him that they have no sinister designs in coming among his people.
Jemmy Johnson is the great high priest of the confederacy. Though now sixty-nine years old, he is yet an erect, fine-looking and energetic Indian, and is hospitable and intel igent. He is in possession of the medal presented by Washington to Red Jacket in 1792, which, among other things of interest, he showed us.
It would be imcompatible with the present purpose to describe al the interesting men who were assembled, among whom were Captain Frost, Messrs. Le Fort, Hill, John Jacket, Dr. Wilson and others. We spent much of the time during the week in conversation with the chiefs and most intel igent Indians of the different nations, and gleaned from them much information of the highest interest, in relation to the organization, government, laws, religion and customs of the people and characteristics of the great men of the old and once powerful confederacy. It is a singular fact, that the peculiar government and national characteristics of the Iroquois is a most interesting field of research and inquiry, which has never been very thoroughly, if at al , investigated, although the historic events which marked the proud career of the confederacy have been perseveringly sought and treasured up in the writings of Stone, Schoolcraft, Hosmer, Yates and others.
Many of the Indians speak English readily, but with the aid and interpretations of Mr. Ely S. Parker, a young Seneca of no ordinary degree of attainment in both scholarship and general inteligence, and who, with Le Fort, the Onondaga, is wel versed in old Iroquois matters, we had no difficulty in conversing with any and all we chose to.
About midday on Wednesday, October 1, the council commenced. The ceremonies with which it was opened and conducted were certainly unique--
almost indescribable; and as its proceedings were in the Seneca tongue, they were in a great measure unintelligible, and in fact, profoundly mysterious to the pale faces. One of the chief objects for which the council had been convoked, was to fil two vacancies in the Sachems of the Senecas, which had been made by the death of the former incumbents; and preceding the instal ation of the candidates for the succession there was a general and dolorous lament for the deceased Sachems, the utterance of which, together with the repetition of the laws of the confederacy, the installation of the new Sachems, the impeachment and disposition of three unfaithful Sachems, the elevation of others in their stead, and the performance of the various ceremonies attendant upon these proceedings, consumed the principal part of the afternoon.
At the setting of the sun a bountiful repast, consisting of an innumerable number of rather formidable looking chunks of boiled fresh beef, and abundance of bread and succotash, was brought into the council house. The manner of saying grace on this occasion was indeed peculiar. A kettle being brought, hot and smoking from the fire, and placed in the center of the council house, there proceeded from a single person, in a high shril key, a prolonged and monotonous sound, resembling that of the syllable _wah_ or _yah_. This was immediately followed by a responsive but protracted tone, the syllable _whe_ or _swe_, and this concluded grace. It was impossible not to be somewhat mirthful y affected at the first hearing of grace said in this novel manner. It is, however, pleasurable to reflect that the Indians recognize the duty of rendering thanks to the Divine Being in some formal way for the bounties and enjoyments which He bestows; and, were an Indian to attend a public feast among his pace faced brethren, he would be affected perhaps to a greater degree of marvel at witnessing a total neglect of this ceremony than we were at his singular way of performing it.
After supper commenced the dances. Al day Tuesday and on Wednesday, up to the time that the places of the deceased Sachems had been fil ed, everything like undue joyfulness had been restrained. This was required by the respect customarily due to the distinguished dead. But now the bereaved Sachems being again fil ed, al were to give utterance of gladness and joy. A short speech by Capt. Frost, introductory to the enjoyments of the evening, was received with acclamatory approbation, and soon eighty or ninety of these sons and daughters of the forest--the old men and the young, the maidens and the matrons--were engaged in the dance. It was indeed a rare sight.
Only two varieties of dancing were introduced the first evening, the trotting dance and the fish dance. The figures of either are exceedingly simple, and but slightly different from each other. In the first named, the dancers al move round a circle in a single file, keeping time in a sort of trotting step to an Indian song of yo-ho-ha, or yo-ho-ha-ha-ho, as sung by the leader, or occasional y by all conjoined. In the other, there is the same movement in single file round a circle, but every two persons, a man and a woman, or two men, face each other, the one moving forward, the other backward, and all keeping step to the music of the singers, who are now, however, aided by a a couple of tortoise or turtle shel rattlers, or an aboriginal drum. At regular intervals there is a sort of cadence in the music, during which a change of position by all the couples takes place, the one who had been moving backward taking the place of the one moving forward, when all again move onward, one-half of the whole, of course, being obliged to fol ow on by dancing backwards.
One peculiarity in Indian dancing would probably strongly commend itself to that class among pale faced beau and bel es denominated bashful; though, perhaps, it would not suit others as wel . The men, or a number of them, usual y begin the dance alone, and the women, or each of them, selecting the one with whom she would like to dance, presents herself at his side as he approaches and is immediately received into the circle.
Consequently, the young Indian beau knows nothing of the tact required to handsomely invite and gal antly lead a lady to the dance; and the young Indian maiden, unannoyed by obnoxious offers, at her own convenience, gracefully presents her personage to the one she designs to favor, and thus quietly engages herself in the dance. And moreover, while an Indian beau is not necessarily obliged to exhibit any gal antry as towards a bel e till she has herself manifested her own good pleasure in the matter; so, therefore, the belle cannot indulge herself in vascilant flirtations with any considerable number of beaux without being at once detected.
On Thursday the religious ceremonies commenced, and the council from the time it assembled, which was about 11 o'clock A. M., till 3 or 4 o'clock P. M., gave the most serious attention to the preaching of Jimmy Johnson, the great high priest, and the second in the succession under the new revelation. Though there are some evangelical believers among the Indians, the greater portion of them cherish the religion of their fathers. This, as they say, has been somewhat changed by the new revelation, which the Great Spirit made to one of their prophets about forty-seven years ago, and which, as they also believe, was approved by Washington.
The profound regard and eneration which the Indians have ever retained towards the name and memory of Washington is most interesting evidence of his universally appreciated worth, and the fact that the red men regard him not merely as one of the best, but as the very best man that ever has existed, or that wil ever exist, is beautifully illustrated in a singular credence which they maintain even to this day, namely, that Washington, is the only white man who has ever entered heaven and is the only one who wil enter there til the end of the world.
Among the Senecas public religious exercises takes place but once a year.
At these times Jimmy Johnson preaches hour after hour for three days, and then rests from any public charge of ecclesiastical offices the remaining three hundred and sixty-two days of the year. On this, an unusual occasion, he restricted himself to a few hours in each of the last two days of the council. We were told by young Parker, who took notes of his preaching, that his subject matter on Thursday abounded in good teachings, enforced by appropriate and happy il ustrations and striking imagery. After he had finished the council took a short respite. Soon, however, a company of warriors, ready and eager to engage in the celebrated corn dance, made their appearance. They were differently attired. While some were completely enveloped in a closely-fitting and gaudy-colored garb, others, though perhaps without intending it, had made wonderful y close approaches to an imitation of the costume said to have been so fashionable in many parts of the State of Georgia during the last hot summer, and which is also said to have consisted simply of a shirt collar and a pair of spurs. But, in truth, these warriors, with shoulders and limbs in a state of nudity, with faces bestreaked with paints, with jingling trinkets dangling to their knees, and with feathered war caps waving above them, presented a truly picturesque and romantic appearance.
When the center of the council house had been cleared and the musicians with the shell rattlers had taken their places, the dance commenced, and for an hour and a half--perhaps two hours--it proceeded with surprising spirit and energy. Almost every posture of which the human frame is susceptible, without absolutely making the feet uppermost and the head for once to assume the place of the feet, was exhibited. Some of the attitudes of the dancers were really imposing, and the dance as a whole, could be got up and conducted only by Indians. The women, in the performance of the corn dance are quite by themselves, keeping time to the beat of the shel s and gliding along sideways, without scarcely lifting their feet from the floor.
It would probably be wel if the Indian everywhere could be inclined to refrain at least from the more grotesque and boisterous peculiarities of the dance. The influence of these cannot be productive of any good, and it is questionable whether it will be possible, so long as they are retained, to assimilate them to any greater degree of civilization, or to more refined methods of living and enjoyment than they now possess. The same may be said of certain characteristics of the still more Vandalic war dance. This, however, was not introduced at the council.
A part of the proceedings of Friday, the last day of the council, bore resemblance to those of the preceding day. Jimmy Johnson resumed his preaching, at the close of which the corn dance was again performed, though with far more spirit and enthusiasm than at the first. Double the numbers that then appeared, al hardy and sinewy men, attired in original and fantastic style, among whom was one of the chiefs of the confederacy, together with forty or fifty women of the different nations, now engaged, and for more than two hours persevered in the performance of the various complicated and fatigueing movement of this dance. The appearance of the dusty throng, with its increased numbers, and of course proportionably increased resources for the production of shril whoops and noisy stamping, and for the exhibition of striking attitudes and rampant motions, was altogether strange, wonderful and seemingly superhuman.
After the dance had ceased, another kind of sport--a well contested foot race--claimed attention. In the evening, after another supper in the council house, the more social dances--the troting, the fish, and one in which the women alone participated--were resumed. The fish dance seemed to be the favorite, and being invited to join in by one of the chiefs, we at once accepted the invitation, and followed in mirthful chase of pleasure with a hundred forest children. Occasional y the dances are characterized with ebulitions of merriment and flashes of real fun, but general y a singular sobriety and decorum are observed. Frequently, when gazing at a throng of sixty or perhaps one hundred dancers, we have been scarcely able to decide which was the most remarkable, the staid and imperturable gravity of the old men and women, or the complete absence of levity and frolicsomeness in the young.
The social dances of the evening, with occasional speeches from the sachems and chiefs, were the final and concluding ceremonies of this singular but interesting affair. Saturday morning witnessed the separation of the various nations and the departure of each to their respective homes.
The writer would liked to have said a word or two or relation to the present condition and prospects of the Indians, but the original design in regard to both the topics and brevity of this writing having been already greatly transcended, it must be deferred. The once powerful confederacy of the Six Nations, occupying in its palmy days the greater portion of New York State, now number only a little over 3,000. Even this remnant will soon be gone. In view of this, as well as of the known fact that the Indian race is everywhere gradually diminishing in numbers, the writer cannot close without invoking for this unfortunate people renewed kindliness, sympathy and benevolent attention. It is true, that with some few exceptions, they possess habits and characteristics which render them difficult to approach; but stil , they are only what the creator of us all has made them. And let it be remembered, it must be a large measure of kindliness and benevolence that will repay the injustice and wrongs that have been inflicted upon them.
ATOTARHO.
Atotarho, who by tradition was an Onondaga, is the great embodiment of the Iroquois courage, wisdom and heroism, and he is invested with allegoric traits which exalt him to a kind of superhuman character.
Unequal ed in war and arts his fame spread abroad, and exalted the Onondaga nation in the highest scale. He was placed at the head of the confederacy, and his name was used after his death as an examplar of glory and honor. While like that of Caesar, it became perpetuated as the official title of the presiding Sachem of the confederacy. He was a man of energy and renown. And such was the estimation in which he was held in his life time, and the popular veneration for his character after death, that, as above denoted, his name became the distinctive title for the office, and is not yet extinct, although the tribes have no longer war to prosecute or foreign embassadors to reply to.
* * * * *
IROQUOIS LAWS OF DESCENT.At the establishment of the confederacy, fifty sachems were founded and a name assigned to each, by which they are still known, and these names are kept as hereditary from the beginning to the present time. There were also fifty sub-sachems, or war chiefs--that is, to every sachem was given a war chief, to stand behind him to do his biddings. These sachemships were, and are still confined to the five nations; the Tuscaroras were admitted into the confederacy without enlarging the framework of the league, by al owing them their own sachems and sub-sachems, or war chiefs, as they inherited from their original nation of North Carolina.
But how, it may be asked, is a government so purely popular and so simple and essential y advisory in its character, to be reconciled with the laws of hereditary descent, fixed by the establishment of heraldic devices and bringing its proportion of weak and incompetent minds into office, and with the actual power it exercised and the fame it acquired. To answer this question, and to show how the aristocratic and democratic principles were made to harmonize in the Iroquois government, it wil be necessary to go back and examine the laws of descent among the tribes, together with the curious and intricate principles of the clans or tribal bond.
Nothing is more fully under the cognizance of observers of the manners and customs of the Indians, than the fact of the entire nation or tribe being separated into distinct clans, each of them distinguished by the name and device of some quadruped, bird, or other object in the animal kingdom. This device is called by the Tuscaroras Or-reak-sa (clan). The Iroquois have turned it to account by assuming it as the very basis of their political and tribal bond.
A government wholly verbal must be conceded to have required this proximity and nearness of access. The original five nations of the Iroquois were, theoretical y, separated into eight clans or original families of kindreds, who are distinguished respectively by the clans of the wolf, bear, turtle, deer, beaver, falcon, crane and the plover. I find that there is a little difference in the clans of the Tuscaroras, which are the bear, wolf, turtle, beaver, deer, eel and snipe. It is contrary to the usage of the Indians that near kindred should intermarry, and the ancient rule interdicts al intermarriage between persons of the same clan. They must marry into a clan which is different from their own.
A Bear or Wolf male cannot marry a Bear or Wolf female. By this custom the purity of blood is preserved, while the ties of relationship between the clans themselves is strengthened or enlarged.
The line of descent is limited exclusively in the female's children.
Owing to this arrangement, a chieftain's son cannot succeed him in office, but in case of his death, the right of descent being in his mother, he would be succeeded, not by one of his male children, but by his brother; or failing in this then by the son of his sister, or by some direct, however remote, descendent of a maternal line.
It wil be noticed that the children are not of the same clan as their father, but are the same as their mother. Thus, he might be succeeded by his own grandson, by the son marrying in his father's clan, and not by his daughter. It is in this way that the chieftainship is continual y kept in a family dynasties in the female line.
While the law of descent is ful y recognized, the free wil of the female to choose a husband from any of the clans, excluding only her own, is made to govern and determine the distribution of political power, and to fix the political character of the tribe. Another peculiarity may be here stated. In choosing a candidate to fil a vacancy of the chieftainship, made either by death or misconduct, the power is lodged in the older women of the clan to choose the candidate, and then to be submitted for the recognition of the chiefs and sachems in council, for the whole nation. If approved, a day is appointed for the recognition also of the Six Nations, and he is formal y instal ed into office. Incapacity is always, however, without exception, recognized as a valid objection to the approval of the council.
LEGENDARY.
On long winter evening the Indian hunters gatherd around their fireside, to listen to the historical traditions, legends of war and hunting, and fairy tales which had been handed down through their fathers and father's fathers, with scarcely any variation for centuries, kindling the enthusiasm of the warrior and inspiring the little child some day to realize similar dreams, and hand his name down to posterity as the author of similar exploits.
They have superstitious fears of relating fables in summer: not until after snow comes wil they relate of snakes, lest they should creep into their beds, or of evil genii, lest they in some way be revenged.
It is very difficult for a stranger to rightly understand the morals of their stories, though it is said by those who know them best, that to them the story was always an illustration of some moral or principle.
To strangers they offer al the rites of hospitality, but do not open their hearts. If you ask them they wil tel you a story, but it will not be such a story as they tel when alone. They wil fear your ridicule and suppress their humor and pathos: so thoroughly have they learned to distrust pale faces, that when they know that he who is present is a friend, they wil still shrink from admitting him within the secret portals of their heart.
And when you have learned al that language can convey, there are still a thousand images, suggestions and associations recurring to the Indian, which can strike no chord in your heart. The myriad voices of nature are dumb to you, but to them they are ful of life and power.
NO. 1.--THE HUNTER AND MEDICINE LEGEND.
There once lived a man who was a great hunter. His generosity was the theme of praise in al the country, for he not only supplied his own family with food, but distributed game among his friends and neighbors, and even cal ed the birds and animals of the forest to partake of his abundance. For this reason he received the appellation of "Protector of Birds and Animals."
He lived a hunter's life til war broke out between his own and some distant nation, and then he took the war path. He was as brave a warrior as he was a skillful hunter, and slew a great multitude of the enemy, till al were lying dead around him, except one, who was a _mighty man of valor_, and in an unguarded moment the hunter received a blow from his tomahawk on the head, which felled him to the earth; his enemy then took his scalp and fled.
Some of his own party saw what befell him, and supposing him dead left him on the field of battle; but a fox who had wandered this way immediately recognized his benefactor. Sorrowful indeed, was he to find him thus slain, and began to revolve in his mind some means of restoring him to life. "Perhaps," said he, "some of my friends may know of a medicine by which his wounds may be healed, and he may live again." So saying, he ran into the forest and uttered the "death lament," which was the signal for al the animals to congregate. From far and near they came, til hundreds and thousands of every kind had assembled around the body of the hunter, eagerly inquiring what had happened. The fox explained he had accidentally came that way and found their friend stretched lifeless upon the earth. The animals drew near and examined him more closely, to be sure that life was extinct; they rolled him over and over on the ground and were satisfied that he was dead, there was not a single sign of life.
Then they held a grand council of which the bear was the speaker. When all were ready to listen, he asked if any one present was acquainted with any medicine which would restore the dead man to life. With great alacrity each one examined his medicine box, but finds nothing adapted to this purpose. Being defeated in their noble object of restoring their friend, al join in a mournful howl--a requiem for the dead. This attracted a singing bird, the oriole, who came quietly to learn the cause of the assembling of the great concourse and their profound lamentation.
The bear made known the calamity which had befal en them, and as the birds would feel themselves equal y afflicted, he requested the oriole to fly away and invite al the feathered tribes to come to the council and see if their united wisdom cannot devise a remedy that wil restore their friend to life.
Soon were assembled all the birds of the air, even the great eagle of the Iroquois, which was seldom induced to appear upon the earth, hastens to pay her respects to the remains of the renowned and benevolent hunter.
Al being satisfied that he was real y dead, the united council of birds and animals, which remained convened, decided that his scalp must be recovered, saying that any bird or animal who pleased might volunteer to go on this mission. The fox was the first to offer his services and departed ful of hope that his zeal would be crowned with success. But after many days he returned, saying he could find no trace of man's footsteps, not a chick or child belonged to any settlement The great love which they bore their friend prompted several others to go upon the same mission, and to the animals belonged the first right as they had first found him; but at length the birds were anxious to show their devotion and the pigeon hawk begged leave to make the first flight, as he was more swift of wing than any other and could visit the whole world in the shortest space of time. They had scarcely missed him when he returned: he said he had been over the entire earth and found it not. They did not consider his voyage satisfactory, as he had flown so swiftly that it was impossible for him to see anything distinctly by the way.
Next the white heron proposed that he be sent, because of being so slow of wing he could see every object as he passed. On his aerial voyage he discovered a plain covered with the vines of the wild bean, laden with the delicious fruit; it was too great a temptation for him to resist, and he descended to enjoy a feast. So gluttonously did he partake that he could not rise again from the earth, and the council after many days of anxious waiting, c