INTRODUCTION.
“A book about Indians,—who cares any thing about them?”
This will probably be the exclamation of many who glance at my title-page, for to those who know nothing concerning them, a whole book about Indians will seem a very prosy affair. To these I can answer nothing, for they will not proceed as far as my preface to see what reason I can render for this seeming folly. But to those who are willing to listen, I will say, that the Indians are a very interesting people, whether I have made an interesting book about them or not.
The Antiquarian, the Historian, and the Scholar, have been a long time studying Indian character, and have given us plenty of information concerning Indians, but it is all in ponderous tomes for State and College libraries, and quite inaccessible to the multitudes. Those who only take up such books as may be held in the hand, sitting by the fire, still remain very ignorant of the inhabitants who peopled the forests, before the Saxon set his foot upon our shore.
There is also a great deal of prejudice, the consequence [[12]]of this ignorance, and the consequence of the representations of our forefathers, who were brought into contact with the Indians, under circumstances that made it impossible to judge impartially and correctly.
This ignorance and prejudice I have attempted to dispel. I thought at first of only giving a series of Indian Biographies, but without some knowledge of the Government and Religion of the Iroquois, the lives of their great men could not be understood or appreciated. The histories which are in our schools, and from which our first impressions are obtained, are still very deficient in what they relate of Indian history, and most of them are still filling the minds of children and youth with very false ideas.
I knew little of what I was undertaking when I began, or I might have shrunk from the task. In my ignorance I thought a very small book would cover all the ground I had marked out, but I soon found it would not cover half of it, and I am obliged to leave the lives of Brandt the great Mohawk Chief, of Sir William Johnson and several other interesting chiefs and personages connected with Indian history, for another volume. If the success of these should be sufficiently encouraging, they may be followed by others, concerning Southern Indians, in volumes to correspond in design and character.
Though a difficult task, I have found it a very pleasing one. The mists of prejudice and ignorance have been cleared from my own mind by the light of truth, and I have been happy indeed, when, either in imagination or in reality, I have been seated by Indian firesides. I have [[13]]read every thing I could hear of connected with my subjects, but aside from books have enjoyed peculiar facilities for prosecuting my labors. A teacher whom I loved in childhood, became a missionary among the Senecas in Western New York. In compliance with her wishes we took a little Indian girl into our family, who was my pupil and companion two years, and whom we all learned to love. Her father was the step-son of Red Jacket, the most renowned chief of the Iroquois, and through our correspondence with the missionaries, we continued, and deepened our interest in her people. It was long a favorite idea with me to write a book concerning them, and when I had decided to do so, I went to Cattaraugus and spent several months in order to become better acquainted with the Indians myself, and to be in daily communion with those who had been among them more than twenty years, and also to gain access to books and documents to be found nowhere else.
On glancing at the table of contents the book may seem fragmentary, but instead of devoting a whole long chapter to the dry details of “manners and customs,” I have woven these usually uninteresting materials into the Biographies, so that no one part can be at all understood or appreciated without reading the whole.
My title will not be so attractive to American ears as if it related to any other unknown people. A tour in Arabia, or Africa, or Kamchatka, with far less important and interesting material, would secure a greater number of readers, as we are always more curious about things afar off. [[14]]
I might have covered as many pages with “Indian atrocities,” but these have been detailed in other histories till they are familiar to every ear, and I had neither room nor inclination for even a glance at war and its dark records.
I have not written the whole truth, yet what I have written is truth, in the minutest details.
Mr. Clarke in the “Onondaga,” has in two large volumes given, a mass of useful information concerning missions, and Indian life and character; and in the “History of Pontiac,” by Parkman, we have a glowing picture of forest life, and life-breathing portraits of forest men.
Charlevoix, La Hontan, Colden, Smith, Macaulay, Morse, and Bancroft, are well-known historians, and their books are the fountains to which all resort for historical knowledge.
Mr. William L. Stone has given us several Indian Biographies, which are most interesting and truthful, presenting Indian rights and wrongs in a new light, and doing justice to Indian character. To these I am indebted for some of the most valuable materials of my book.
Mr. Schoolcraft has given us a world of wondrous things in his numerous quartos and folios, which will prove a treasure-house in all future time for philologists, ethnologists, and antiquarians of all names; and Mr. Lewis H. Morgan has written one of the most curious books in his “League of the Iroquois,” in which we have the Government, Religion, and Customs of the Six Nations portrayed truly, and yet so brightly, that one is almost tempted to say, “What need is there of a better [[15]]way?” There are few, however learned, who would not be surprised on reading his account of Indian “Church and State.” Knowing his devotion to truth and accuracy, and his opportunities for obtaining correct knowledge of what he wrote, I have, in all I have taken from books concerning the Iroquois Confederacy, relied upon him. To him I am also indebted for criticisms and suggestions which will save the critics much trouble, though they will probably have plenty to do as it is.
The works of Col. Thomas L. McKenney, the well-known administrator of Indian affairs, contain the most life-like and glowing pictures of Indian character, and the most truthful appreciation of Indian life, for he knew our forest forefathers longer, and saw them under a greater variety of circumstances, than it was possible for another to do; and he rightly understood both the Indian and the white man, and the means of adapting them to each other.
Alas, that his noble plans for civilizing and Christianizing the red races of America should have been frustrated, when there was not only the hope, but the most encouraging prospect, that the work might be accomplished. His was no Utopian scheme, but one which successful operation had proved practicable. But it was not so to be. He could not save them; but through his own personal efforts, and influence as head of department, we have the gallery of Indian portraits, invaluable as specimens of art, and invaluable as the only correct representatives of a people so soon to have passed away. I am not only indebted to the books of Mr. McKenney, but to him, [[16]]for every facility which it has been in his power to afford for information, and promoting the success of my plan.
In the poem of Alfred B. Street, “Frontenac,” we have the government, religion, and festivals of the Long House in one beautiful picture. As a poem, it is one of the most artistic in our language; but its Indian hue has prevented its being appreciated, and it concerns a people so little known and so entirely misunderstood in prose, that its descriptions are like a panorama without light. I have quoted from it several songs, to embellish my sombre pages.
Tecumseh, by Colton, has been longer published, and is better known; and the poems of Hosmer are familiar to the readers of Magazines, and do not need me to commend them.
I have not wished to encumber my book with notes and authorities, and therefore express my obligations, by naming the principal sources of my information from books, in this way, and add that I have gleaned “here a little and there a little,” wherever I could find any thing to suit my purpose.
Mr. Wright, in whose family I remained whilst seeking new materials, understands the Seneca language, and also many others, and gave me freely the results of his long and intimate experience of Indian life; whilst his wife, who also speaks the language with fluency, was enabled, by the observation which is woman’s peculiar province, and as a highly cultivated intellectual woman, to give me the aid which no man, however learned he might be, could render. [[17]]
There are also many educated Indians on my list of friends and helpers. Dr. Peter Wilson is well known as a highly gifted and educated man. Mr. N. T. Strong and M. B. Pierce are intelligent and accomplished gentlemen. To Mr. N. W. and Ely S. Parker I am much indebted, as their time and knowledge have been ever cordially at my service. The one is engaged in translating the Bible into the Seneca language, having been educated at the Normal School, Albany; and the other is one of the most honored and valuable servants in the employment of the State, as Engineer. Their sister is a highly intelligent and cultivated young lady, as one often meets in any society. These that I have mentioned are young, and pertain to the new order of things; but there are aged men and aged women still living, who give us some idea of the Indian as he was. I have been in their houses, and become acquainted with their hearts, and not among any people have I seen firesides where love and friendship wore a brighter smile, or hearts throbbed with more genuine Christian sympathy.
I experienced to the full their cordial hospitality, and bring away the mark of respect which they only bestow upon favored ones. The manner in which names are bestowed is one of their peculiar customs, and is quite an imposing ceremony. The name of every child is publicly confirmed in Council, in order to be a legal name; and when he grows to man’s estate, another is given him, which is confirmed in the same public way. At the present time, when they bestow a name upon a stranger, [[18]]it is usually done at the New Year’s Council, whether the person is present or absent.
Mine was conferred at a private social gathering, a speech being made on the occasion by Sha-dye-no-wah (John Hudson), one of their most distinguished men, who adopted me into the Bear tribe as his niece. This token of regard was afterwards confirmed by a Council of the Nation, and this name I shall be ever proud to subscribe. It signifies “one who has a new style,” or “tells new things.”
Gui-ee-wa-zay.
INDIAN WOMAN IN COSTUME.
[[19]]
THE IROQUOIS.
CHAPTER I.
NATIONAL TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
In all the early histories of the American colonies—in the stories of Indian life and delineations of Indian character—we have these children of the wilderness represented as savage and barbarous, with scarcely a redeeming trait of character. And in the minds of a large portion of the community the sentiment still prevails, that they were bloodthirsty, revengeful, and merciless—justly a terror to both friends and foes. Children are impressed with the idea that an Indian is scarcely human, and as much to be feared as the most ferocious animal of the forest.
Novelists have now and then clothed a few with a garb which excites our admiration; but seldom has one been invested with qualities which we could love, unless it were also said that through some captive, taken in distant wars, he inherited a whiter skin and a paler blood.
But I am inclined to think that Indians are not alone in being savage—not alone barbarous, and heartless, and merciless. [[20]]
It is said they were exterminating each other by aggressive and devastating wars before the white people came among them. But wars—certainly, aggressive and exterminating wars—are not proofs of barbarity. The bravest warrior was the most honored; and this has been ever true of Christian nations; and those who call themselves Christian, have not ceased yet to look upon him who could plan most successfully the wholesale slaughter of human beings, as the most deserving his king’s and his country’s laurels. How long since the pæan died away in praise of the Duke of Wellington? What have been the wars in which all Europe has been engaged since there have been any records of her history? For what are civilized and Christian nations now drenching their fields with blood?
It is said the Indian was cruel to the captive, and inflicted unspeakable tortures upon his enemy taken in battle. But, from what we know of them, it is not to be inferred that Indian chiefs were ever guilty of filling dungeons with innocent victims, or slaughtering hundreds and thousands of their own people, whose only sin was a quiet dissent from some religious dogma. Towards their enemies they were often relentless, and they had good reason to look upon white men as their enemies. They slew them in battle, plotted against them secretly, and in a few instances—few comparatively—subjected individuals to torture, burnt them at the stake, and, perhaps, flayed them alive. But who knows any thing of the precepts and practice of Roman Catholic Christendom, and quotes these things as proofs of unmitigated barbarity? At the very time that Indians were using the tomahawk and scalping-knife to avenge their wrongs, peaceful citizens in every country in Europe, where the Pope was the man of authority, were incarcerated for no crime whatever, and [[21]]such refinements of torture invented and practised as it never entered in the heart of the fiercest Indian warrior that roamed the wilderness, to inflict upon man or beast. We know very little of the secrets of the Inquisition, and this little chills our blood with horror; yet these things were done in the name of Christ, the Saviour of the world—the Prince of Peace; and not savage, but civilized, Christian men looked on, not coldly, but rejoicingly, while women and children writhed in flames and weltered in blood!
Were the atrocities, committed in the Vale of Wyoming and Cherry Valley unprecedented among the Waldensian fastnesses and the mountains of Auvergne? Who has read Fox’s Book of Martyrs and found any thing to parallel it in all the records of Indian warfare? The slaughter of St. Bartholomew’s day, the destruction of the Jews in Spain, and the Scotch Covenanters, were in obedience to the mandates of Christian princes, aye, and some of them devised by Christian women, who professed to be serving God, and to make the Bible the man of their counsel.
It is said also the Indian was treacherous, and in compliance with the conditions of no treaty was ever to be trusted. But our Puritan fathers cannot be wholly exonerated from the charge of faithlessness; and who does not blush to talk of Indian traitors when he remembers the Spanish invasion and the fall of the princely and magnanimous Montezuma?
“Indians believed in witches and burned them too!” Did not the sainted Baxter, with the Bible in his hand, pronounce it right? and was not the Indian permitted to be present, when a quiet, unoffending woman was cast into the fire by the decree of a Puritan council?
To come down to more decidedly Christian times, we [[22]]are yet called upon to shudder at the revelations of Howard and Miss Dix. It is not so very long since, in Protestant England, hanging was the punishment of a petty theft, and long and hopeless imprisonment, of a slight misdemeanor. I think it is within the memory of those who are not the oldest inhabitants, when men were yet up to be stoned and spit upon by those who claimed the exclusive right to be called humane and merciful.
Again, it is said, the Indian mode of warfare is, without exception, the most inhuman and revolting. But I do not know that those who die by the barbed and poisoned arrow, linger in more unendurable torments, than those who are mangled by powder and balls. The tomahawk makes quick work of dying, and the custom of scalping among Christian murderers would save thousands from groaning days, and perhaps weeks, among heaps that cover victorious fields and fill hospitals with the wounded and the dying! But scalping was not an invention exclusively Indian. “It claims,” says Prescott, “high authority, or, at least, antiquity.” The Father of history, Herodotus, gives an account of it among the Scythians, showing that they performed the operation, and wore the scalps of their enemies taken in battle, as trophies, in the same manner as our North American Indians. Traces of the same custom are also found in the laws of the Visigoths, among the Franks, and even the Anglo-Saxons. The Southern Indians did not scalp, but they had a system of slavery, no trace of which is to be found among the customs, laws, or legends of the Iroquois.
Again: “They carried away women and children captive, and in their long journeys through the wilderness, they were subjected to heart-rending trials.”
The wars of Christian men throw hundreds and thousands [[23]]of women and children helpless upon the cold world, to toil, to beg, to starve!
This is not so bright a picture as is usually given of people who have written laws and stores of learning; but I cannot see that in any place the coloring is too dark. There is no danger of painting Indians, so that they will become attractive to civilized people; and there is no need of painting them more hideously than they paint themselves.
There is a bright and pleasing side to Indian character; and thinking that there has been enough written of their wars and their cruelties, of the hunter’s and the fisherman’s life, I have sat down by their firesides, and listened to their legends, and tried to become acquainted with their domestic habits, and to understand their finer feelings, and the truly noble traits of their character.
It is so long now since they were the lords of our soil, and formidable as our enemies,—they are so utterly wasted away and helpless that we can afford to listen to the truth, and to believe that even our enemies had virtues. Man was created in the image of God, and it cannot be that any thing human is utterly vile and contemptible. To remain in ignorance and censure without knowledge is easier than to study and toil for the truth, but with the present facilities for digging, Christian people cannot be excused in remaining content with dross.
Those who have always thought of Indians as roaming about in the forests, hunting and fishing or at war, will laugh, perhaps, at the idea of Indian homes and domestic happiness; yet there is no people of which we have any knowledge, among whom, in their primitive state, family ties and relationships were more distinctly defined or more religiously respected.
The treatment which they received from the white [[24]]people, whom they always considered as intruders, aroused and kept in exercise all their ferocious passions, so that none except those who mingled with them as missionaries or as captives, saw them in their true character—as they were to each other.
Almost any portrait which we have of Indians, represents them with tomahawk and scalping knife in hand, as if they possessed no other but a barbarous nature. Christian nations might with equal justice be always represented with cannon and balls and swords and pistols, as the emblems of their employments and their prevailing tastes.
The details of wars form far too great a portion of every history of civilized and barbarous nations; to conquer and to slay has been too long the glory of Christian people; he who has been most successful in subjugating and oppressing, in mowing down human beings, has too long worn the laurel crown,—been too long an object for the admiration of men and the love of woman.
We are weary of the pomp and circumstance of war—of princely banquets and gay cavalcades. The time and space we bestow upon Kings and Courts, and the homage we pay to empty titles, are unworthy our professed Republican spirit and preferences. Let us turn aside from the war path and sit down by the hearth stone of peace.
In the pictures which I shall give I shall confine myself principally to the Iroquois or Six Nations, a people who no more deserve the term savage, than we do that of heathen, because we have still lingering among us heathen superstitions, and many opinions and practices which deserve no better name!
The cannibals of some of the West India Islands, and the islands of the Pacific, may with justice be termed savage, [[25]]but a people like the Iroquois who had a government, established offices, a system of religion eminently pure and spiritual, a code of honor and laws of hospitality excelling those of all other nations, should be considered something better than savage, or utterly barbarous.
The terrible tortures they inflicted upon their enemies have made their name a terror, and yet there were not so many burnt and hung and starved by them as perish among Christian nations by these means. The miseries they inflicted were light in comparison with those they suffered, and when individuals from them have come among us to expose the barbarity of savage white men, the deeds they relate equal any thing we know of Indian cruelty. The picture an Indian will give of civilized barbarism, leaves the revolting customs of the wilderness quite in the background. We experienced their revenge when we had put their souls and bodies on the rack, and with our fire-water had maddened their brains. There was a pure and beautiful spirituality in their faith, and their conduct was as much influenced by it as are any people, Christian or pagan.
Is there any thing more barbaric in the annals of Indian warfare than the narrative of the destruction of the Pequod Indians? In one place we read of the surprise of an Indian fort by night, when the inmates were slumbering unconscious of danger. When they awoke they were wrapped in flames, and when they attempted to flee, were shot down like wild beasts. From village to village, and wigwam to wigwam, the murderers proceeded, “being resolved,” as our historian piously remarks, “by God’s assistance, to make a final destruction of them,” till finally a small but gallant band took refuge in a swamp “Burning with indignation and made sullen by despair; with hearts bursting with grief at the destruction of their [[26]]nation, and spirits galled and sore at the fancied ignominy of their defeat, they refused to ask their lives at the hand of an insulting foe, and preferred death to submission. As the night drew on they were surrounded in their dismal retreat, and volleys of musketry poured into their midst, till nearly all were killed or buried in the mire.” In the darkness of a thick fog which preceded the dawn of day, a few broke through the ranks of the besiegers and escaped to the woods.
Again, the same historian tells us that the few who remained “stood like sullen dogs to be killed rather than implore mercy; and the soldiers, on entering the swamps, found many sitting together in groups, when they approached; and resting their guns on the boughs of trees within a few yards of them, literally filled their bodies with bullets.”[1] But they were Indians, and it was pronounced a pious work. “When the Gauls invaded Italy, and the Roman senators, in their purple robes and chairs of state, sat unmoved in the presence of barbarian conquerors, disdaining to flee and equally disdaining to supplicate mercy, it is applauded as noble—as dying like statesmen and philosophers. But when the Indian, with far more to lose, and infinitely greater provocation, sits upon the green mound, beneath the canopy of heaven, and refuses to ask mercy of civilized fiends, he is stigmatized as dogged, spiritless, and sullen.” “What a different name has greatness, clothed in the garb of Christian princes and sitting beneath spacious domes, gorgeous with man’s devices; and greatness, in the simple garb of nature, destitute, and alone in the wilderness!”
There is nothing in the character of Alexander of Macedon—who “conquered the world, and wept that he [[27]]had no more to conquer”—to compare with the noble qualities of King Philip, of Mount Hope; and among his warriors is a long list of brave men unrivalled in deeds of heroism, by any in ancient or modern story. But in what country, and by whom were they hunted and tortured and slain? Who was it that met together to rejoice and give thanks at every species of cruelty inflicted upon those who were fighting for their wives and their children, their altars and their God? When it is recorded that “men, women, and children, indiscriminately, were hewn down and lay in heaps upon the snow,” it is spoken of as doing God service, because they were nominally heathen. “Before the fight was finished, the wigwams were set on fire, and into these, hundreds of innocent women and children had crowded themselves and perished in the general conflagration,” and for this, thanksgivings are sent up to heaven. The head of Philip is strung bleeding upon a pole, and exposed in the public streets; but it is not done by savage warriors, and the crowd that huzzas at the revolting spectacle assemble on the Sabbath in a Puritan church, to listen to the gospel that proclaims peace and love to all men. His body is literally cut in slices to be distributed among the conquerors, and a Christian city rings with acclamations.
In speaking of this bloody contest one who is most eminent among the “Fathers” says, “Nor could they cease praying unto the Lord against Philip till they had prayed the bullet through his heart.” “Two and twenty Indian Captains were slain and brought down to hell in one day.” “A bullet took him in the head, and sent his cursed soul in a moment amongst the devils and blasphemers in hell forever.”
Massasoit, the father of Philip, was the true friend to the English, and when he was about to die, took his two [[28]]sons Alexander and Philip, and fondly commended them to the kindness of the new settlers, praying that the same peace and good will might be between them, that had existed between him and his white friends. Upon mere suspicion, only a little while afterwards, the elder, who succeeded his father as ruler among his people, was hunted in his forest home, and dragged before a court, the nature and object of which he could not understand; but the indignity which was offered him and the treachery of those who thus insulted him, so chafed his proud spirit, that a fever was the consequence, of which he died. And this is not all. The son and wife of Philip were sold into slavery, as were also many others of the Indians taken captive during the colonial wars. “Yes,” says a distinguished orator,[2] “they were sold into slavery,—West Indian slavery! an Indian princess and her child sold from the cool breezes of Mount Hope, from the wild freedom of a New England forest, to gasp under the lash, beneath the blazing sun of the tropics! ‘Bitter as death,’ aye, bitter as hell! Is there any thing, I do not say in the range of humanity,—is there any thing animated, that would not struggle against this?”
Nor is this indeed all. A kinswoman of theirs, a princess in her own right, Wet-a-more of Pocasset, was pursued and harassed till she fell exhausted in the wilderness, and died of cold and starvation. There she was found by men professing to be shocked at Indian barbarity, her head severed from her body, and carried bleeding upon a pole to be exposed in the public highways of a country, ruled by men who have been honored as saints and martyrs. “Let me die among my kindred.” “Bury me with my fathers,” is the prayer of every Indian heart; and the most delicate and reverential kindness in their [[29]]treatment of the bodies of the dead, was considered a religious duty. There was nothing in all their customs that indicated a barbarism so gross and revolting as these acts which are recorded by New England historians without a censure, while the lamentations which the Indian utters in his grief at seeing his kindred dishonored and his religion reviled, are stigmatized as savage and fiendish.
If all, or even a few who ministered among them in holy things, had been like Eliot, who is called “the apostle to the Indians,” and deserves to be ranked with the apostles of old; or Kirkland, who is endeared to the memory of every Iroquois who heard his name, it could not have become a proverb or a truth that civilization and Christianity wasted them away.
Not by one, but many, they are unscrupulously called “dogs, wolves, bloodhounds, demons, devils incarnate, hell-hounds, fiends, monsters, beasts,”—always considering them inferior beings, and scarcely allowing them to be human. Yet one, who was at that time a captive among them, represents them as “kind, loving, and generous,” and concerning this same monster Philip, records nothing that should have condemned him in the eyes of those who believed in wars aggressive and defensive, and awarded honors to heroes, and martyrs, and conquerors.
By the Governor of Jamestown, a hand was severed from the arm of a peaceful, unoffending Indian, that he might be sent back a terror to his people, and through the magnanimity of a daughter and King of that same people, that Colony was saved from destruction. It was through their love and trust alone that Powhatan and Pocahontas lost their forest dominions.
Hospitality was one of the Indians’ distinguishing virtues, and there was no such thing among them as individual starvation or want. As long as there was a cup of [[30]]soup, it was divided. If a friend or stranger called he was welcome to all their wigwams could furnish, and to offer him food was not a custom merely, for it was a breach of politeness for him to refuse to eat, however full he might be.
Because their system was not like ours, it does not follow that it was not a system. We might have looked into a wigwam or lodge, and thought every thing in confusion; while to the occupants, there was a place for every thing and every thing in its place. Each had his couch, which answered for bed by night and seat by day, and no other person would have thought of appropriating it, any more than a private apartment would be thus appropriated among us.
The ceremonies at their festivals were as regular as in our churches; their rules of war were as well defined as those of Christian nations, and in their games and athletic sports, there was a code of honor which it was disgraceful to violate; their marriage vows were as well understood, and courtesy as formally practised at their dances.
The nature of the Indian was in all respects like the nature of people of any other nation, and if placed in the same circumstances he exhibited the same passions and vices. But in his forest home there was not the same temptation to great crimes, or what are usually termed the lesser ones of slander, scandal, and gossip, as exists among civilized nations.
They knew nothing of the desire of gain, and therefore were not made selfish by the love of hoarding, and there was no temptation to steal where they had all things common; and their reverence for truth and fidelity to promises, may well put all the nations of Christendom to shame. [[31]]
I have written in something of the spirit which would characterize the history written by an Indian, yet it does not deserve to be called Indian partiality, but only justice and the spirit of humanity, or, if I may be allowed to say it, the spirit with which any Christian should be able to consider the character and deeds of his foes. I would not derogate from the virtues of our forefathers. They were at that time unrivalled, but the bigotry and superstition of the dark ages still lingered among them, and their own perils blinded them to the wickedness and cruelty of the means they took for defence. Four, and perhaps two centuries hence, I doubt not, some of our dogmas will seem as unchristian, as theirs seem to us; and I truly hope ere then our wars will seem as barbarous, and the fantastic dress of our soldiers as ridiculous, as we have been in the habit of representing the wars and wild drapery of the Indian of the forest.
How long were the Saxon and Celt in becoming a civilized and Christian people? How long since the helmet, the coat of mail, and the battle-axe were laid aside? To make himself more terrific, the Briton of the days of Henry II. drew the skin of a wild beast over his armor, with the head and ears standing upright, and mounted his war-horse to go forth crying “to arms!” “death to the invader!” The paint and the eagle plume of the Indian warrior were scarcely a more barbarous invention, nor his war-cry more terrible.
It is not just to compare the Indian of the fifteenth with the Christian of the fifteenth century. Compare him with the barbarian of Britain, of Russia, of Lapland, Kamchatka and Tartary, and represent him as truly as these nations have been represented, and he will not suffer by the comparison. [[32]]
CHAPTER II.
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT; OR, LONG HOUSE OF THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE.
Let us look for a moment into the Long House of the Indian confederacy, and learn something of the government of a people, whom we have been in the habit of considering ungoverned, and utterly lawless and rude.
In the country which stretches from the Hudson to Lake Erie, and from the St. Lawrence to the Susquehanna, there dwelt five separate nations, concerning whose origin we have no knowledge, and with regard to whom all conjecture is vain.
Concerning themselves they can only say, they grew up out of the ground, or sprung up like the trees of the forest. They cannot remember when they were not as the sand on the sea-shore for multitude, and when their laws and manners and customs were not the same as when white people came among them.
They had no written language, and, of course, no written lore; and not a trace of any thing their fathers did, is upon leaf or parchment; but by studying their legends and fables, observing and understanding their customs, we can easily imagine what they were.
The Five Nations, called by the French, the Iroquois, date the formation of the league only a few years before [[33]]the white man first landed upon their shores, and it seems to be Columbus to whom they refer as the first invader.
They called themselves the Ho-de-no-sau-ne, or People of the Long House; implying that they were one family, sheltered by the same roof.
Each nation was divided into eight tribes or clans, which bear the names of Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, Hawk, and at the formation of the League these names were retained and all their laws and customs made with reference to this division into tribes.
One of the historical traditions concerning this union relates that just before its formation there appeared among them a most extraordinary and formidable warrior, To-do-da-ho, whose hair was a mass of living snakes, and whose fingers and toes also terminated in living serpents, that kept continually hissing and darting their forked tongues. The snakes were combed out of his hair by a Mohawk Sachem, who was afterwards called Ha-yo-went-ha, the man who combs.
To-do-da-ho, was at first opposed to the league, because as the Sachems were all to be of equal power, he would be deprived of his importance. But to compensate him for giving up the absolute authority he had been accustomed to exercise, the first Sachemship was named for him, and the title would descend to all who afterwards should fill the same office. And though he who inherits it has really no more power than the others, the name signifies to them a combination of more noble qualities than any other, and is regarded with a little more reverence.
After the first formation of the league, there seems to have been little change in the government or any of the institutions connected with it, though it is evident that there was a gradual progression in their domestic habits, and great improvements in agriculture. The journal of [[34]]De Nonville, who was sent by the French, as commander of an expedition against the Six Nations in 1607, speaks of large villages, especially among the Senecas. In four towns the whole number of houses was three hundred and twenty four, and in these four villages alone he destroyed one million two hundred thousand (1,200,000) bushels of corn, besides great quantities of beans, squashes and other vegetables. There was also a large fort about fifteen miles from the present town of Rochester, of eight hundred paces in circumference, situated on a commanding height overlooking an extensive valley.
Had the invasions of the Saxons been deferred a century longer, they might have found a state of civilization in New York, as advanced as the Spaniards formed among the Aztecs. Their name, as a united people, had spread far and wide, and awakened terror in many a bosom.
“By far Mississippi the Illini shrank,
When the trail of the tortoise was seen on the bank.
On the hills of New England, the Pequod turned pale,
When the howl of the wolf swelled at night on the gale;
And the Cherokee shook in his green smilling bowers,
When the foot of the bear stamped his carpet of flowers.”
As the Tuscaroras had been driven away, there were only five nations when the league was formed, but the exiles returned, and were admitted as one of the families of the Long House, in 1715.
The first council fire was kindled on the north shore of the Onondaga lake; and, in the metaphorical language of the Indian, was spoken of as always burning, to indicate that the people were ever acting in concert. The Mohawks dwelt at the eastern door, and kept watch towards the rising sun. The Senecas were the western door, [[35]]and were expected to defend the western lodge, that no enemy should enter towards the setting sun.
The Onondagas were in the centre, and to them was committed the council brand and the wampum, and they were expected to understand the keeping of records by the wampum belt.
There were created fifty Sachemships, all the Sachems being of equal authority—nine belonging to the Mohawk nation, nine to the Oneida, fourteen to the Onondaga, ten to the Cayuga, and eight to the Seneca nation. They had no separate territory over which each ruled, but, in general council, attended to the affairs of the whole.
Formerly, when their numbers increased so that their fields could not furnish corn, nor their forests venison for so great a number, a band would go forth in search of new hunting-grounds, and thus be lost to their people and kindred. But now they were to belong to the confederacy wherever they might roam, and continue their allegiance.
It was not for the purpose of conquering and subjugating that the new government was formed, though they hoped, by this means, better to defend themselves against their border enemies, yet they became very formidable in their consolidated strength, and carried a war of extermination among all the surrounding nations, who would not join the league, or leave them in peace.
“Nought in the woods now their might could oppose,
Nought could withstand their confederate blows—
Banded in strength, and united in soul,
They moved on their course with the cataract’s roll.”
Their names were very significant, and whether belonging to persons or places, were descriptive of something in their lives or national history.
To the Onondagas belonged the privilege of naming [[36]]the Sachems, when the league was formed, and as these names were to descend to all the Sachems of posterity, it was a perpetual honor to the nation. In council they were addressed as Ho-de-sau-no-gata—name-bearers.
Onondaga signifies on the hills, as their principal village, at the time they became known, was upon an eminence overlooking a beautiful country.
The Oneidas were the granite people, sprung from a stone, and they, too, dwelt upon a hill, from which they could look far away through an extensive and fertile valley, on the borders of Oneida lake. The stone which was the rallying point of the people, is a great boulder, differing in geological formation from any within a hundred miles. In council, they came afterwards to be called the great tree people, from some occurrence in a treaty beneath a big tree. The original Oneida stone may be seen in the cemetery at Utica.
The first settlement of the Cayugas was at the foot of Cayuga lake, and they were called the people at the mucky land. In council they were called the great-pipe people. The tradition concerning them is explanatory of all Indian names. The ideal was seldom understood by those who interpreted them. When it is said, the man of this nation whose voice was first heard in council, was in the habit of smoking a great pipe, it is true, but conveys nothing to us, that it conveys to the Indians. When the chiefs and sachems were all seated in the council chamber, they commenced smoking, filling their pipes anew when a speech was about to be made, that they might listen without interruption. The Cayuga had a large pipe, so that his tobacco lasted longer than that of others, and he could, therefore, longer attend, and was better able to concentrate his thoughts; to say he was the great-pipe man, was the same [[37]]as saying he was more thoughtful, and listening more attentively, he was better able to judge.
The device of the Mohawks was a flint and steel, because they first proposed the formation of the league, and struck the first council fire. In Council they were called Da-de-o-ga, the people of the two policies, because a portion were in favor of the league, and a portion were not.
The Senecas being at the door, were called the first fire; the Cayugas, the second; and those next in order, the third and fourth, on to the Mohawks, who were the fifth. As they had no cisterns or wells, they built their habitations upon the borders of the rivers, near bubbling springs, and on the shores of lakes. The boundaries between the different nations were distinctly defined, and in their hunting excursions they confined themselves to their own territory, whilst within the limits under the jurisdiction of the league, but without their united borders, they roamed unrestrained, and all had equal liberty on the soil of their enemies.
It seems a curious problem now, how such a people were to be called together; but their runners were almost as fleet of foot as the deer in the forest, and their trails were the connecting links, not only between village and village, clans and nations, but stretched far away to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic ocean and the northern lakes. They were a mere foot-path, just wide enough for one to walk therein, but they were sometimes so deep by the myriad footsteps which traversed them for centuries, that the sides were several inches deep. And these trails have become the thorough-fare of our great nation. In them the Indians wound along beneath the mountains and through the valleys, carrying the light canoe upon their shoulders, in which they skimmed [[38]]the broadest lakes and deepest rivers, and were so familiar with all the connecting links, that the darkest recesses of the forest were threaded as easily as the streets of a village, and almost as quickly as the fiery engine wheels its way over the smooth iron pathway. I have heard a young Indian say, that his father had often run from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico, and for four or five days at a time, scarcely stopping to eat by the way. And I have heard an aged Indian say, that in the days of his youth, he would run the distance between certain boundaries, which must have included forty miles, returning the same day, and thought it no great feat. Only a few years ago there was a trial of speed between an Indian runner and several horsemen, or their caparisoned steeds, and the runner left the horsemen far in the rear. But it is not by these thoroughfares alone that the Indian is to be traced in all our borders. Their expressive and musical names are upon every hill-side, in every glen; in the foaming cataract and on the bosom of the broad lake,—from the mountain top to the green islet in the midst of the waves, we listen to their silvery voices.
“Ye say that all have passed away,
The noble race and brave,
That their light canoes have vanished
From off the crested wave;
That ’mid the forests where they roamed,
There rings no hunters’ shout;
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.
Ye say their cone-like cabins,
That clustered o’er the vale,
Have disappeared like withered leaves
Before the autumn gale; [[39]]
But their memory liveth on your hills,
Their baptism on your shore,
Your ever living waters speak
Their dialect of yore.”
The several nations held nearly the same relationship to each other and the league, that the several States do to the Federal Government, and it has been said that they gave to our Fathers the idea of E Pluribus Unum.
Their Councils were divided into three classes. The Civil Council for the purpose of considering their foreign relations, and transacting business upon foreign affairs; the Mourning Council, which was called upon the death of a Sachem, to fill a vacancy, if one had occurred, or confer upon a brave warrior the title and office of Chief; and the Religious Councils, convened, as the name implies, for religious observances.
The chiefs did not form any part of the original corps of officers, but were admitted afterwards, and in their figurative language were styled the braces of the Long House, because a chieftainship was the reward of merit, and conferred upon those who had “gained honor in war,” or those who had in some other way earned distinction, and were ambitious of renown. And it is recorded as a curious fact in their history, that all their great orators were among the Chiefs. Except the three of the first fifty Sachems, there has never one attained to any distinction until Logan, who was the son of a Cayuga Chief, and himself a Sachem. The Sachems attended entirely to the affairs of peace, and had not so much to arouse their enthusiasm, as those who had mingled in the excitements of war. No Sachem could be at the same time a civil officer and a warrior; if he took the war-path, he laid aside for the time his governmental duties. That [[40]]their League was not instituted for the purpose of making war, is evident from the fact, that there was no war department connected with the government. All war expeditions were private enterprises. The nations not belonging to the League were considered enemies, and any warrior was at liberty to form a party and constitute himself leader or captain, and go forth to conquer; if he was successful, he was honored with a chief-ship and seat in the Council, but no special military power was conferred on him, as the Indian Confederacy seemed to have as much fear of military supremacy as our own government.
But there was this difference between their government and ours—when the council was not sitting there was no administration of affairs. If any thing happened in any tribe or nation that required the advice or deliberation of the assembled Sachems, a runner was sent to the nation nearest, and they sent a messenger to the next, and so on, till all had been apprised.
If, for instance, the Senecas wished a council called, the Sachems of this nation convened and determined whether the matter was of sufficient importance to require a council of the Six Nations. If they concluded it was, they sent a runner, with a wampum belt, to the Cayugas. The Cayugas informed the Onondagas in the same manner, and they the Oneidas, and the Oneidas the Mohawks. If it was something which interested all, the effect was like an electric shock; and not the Sachems and chiefs and warriors alone, but women and little children gathered around the council fire, coming from the farthest limits of their territory, heeding no toil or danger in their zeal for the common welfare.
BELT.
No message was of any weight unless it was accompanied by the wampum belt. This originally consisted of [[41]]small shells, strung upon strings of deer-skin. After their acquaintance with the Dutch they used manufactured wampum, which resembled small pieces of broken pipe stem. The belts consisted of several strings, woven together, and were some of them black and some white. The process by which they treasured up speeches and events was a kind of mnemonics, and done entirely by association. “This belt preserves my words” was the common expression at the end of every speech or sentence, and each part was associated with a particular portion of the belt or string which was held in the hand. When messengers were sent from tribe to tribe, or nation to nation, the wampum belt was the proof of its genuineness, and without it no messenger was heeded. White was the emblem of peace, and black of war, or danger.
The calumet of peace is another mysterious symbol among the Indians, and not less respected than the sceptre of a king. It is a species of pipe of stone, with the head finely polished, and the quill two feet and a half long, made of a strong reed. The red calumets are most esteemed, and often trimmed with white, yellow, and green feathers.
“Whilst high he lifted in his hand
The sign of peace, the calumet;
So sacred to the Indian soul,
With its stem of reed, and its dark red bowl,
Flaunting with feathers—white, yellow, and green.”
It is the flag of truce among Indian nations, and a violation of it as disgraceful among them as an insult to the waving stars and stripes of the United States, or the Lion and the Unicorn, when these national emblems are borne to the enemy’s camp as a signal that strife may cease.
Smoking the calumet together was a pledge of amity, [[42]]and was often used as a figure of speech, in the expression of friendship. Their language is a language of metaphors, and very difficult to be translated or interpreted into any other, and is to them full of classical allusions, as every important event is transmitted by transferring it to some person as a name, or baptizing with it some mountain, lake, or stream.
No son or daughter of any tribe was allowed to marry a person belonging to a tribe of the same name in his own or any other nation. A Deer of the Seneca nation could marry a Turtle of his own, or of the Mohawk or Cayuga nation, and so of each of the others. But a Wolf could not marry a Wolf, or a Heron a Heron.
The children belonged to the tribe of the mother. If she was of the Deer tribe all her children were of the Deer tribe. They called her mother, and also called her sisters mother, and her sister’s children, brothers and sisters; and hence arose the impossibility of marrying in their own clan. They looked upon all belonging to it as one family, and a marriage within those degrees of consanguinity was as disgraceful and revolting in their eyes as a marriage with us between real brothers and sisters.
The offices also, Sachems, etc., were inherited in the line of the mothers. So it will be seen that the women were treated with quite as much respect as among Christian governments, and though they cultivated the fields and were the servants of men in some respects, their toil was very light, and it is the testimony of captives who have resided a long time among them, that their lords were uniformly kind and considerate.
The emblem of power worn by the Sachem was a deer’s antlers, and if in any instance the women disapproved of the election or acts of a Sachem, they had the power to remove his horns and return him to private life. Their [[43]]officers or runners from council to council were chosen by themselves and denominated women’s men, and by these their interests were always fully represented. If at any time they wished any subject considered, by means of their runners, they called a council in their clan; if it was a matter of more general interest there was a council of the nation, and if the opinions of the women or Sachems of other nations were necessary, a grand council was called as readily to attend to them as to the interests of men. Thus a way was provided for them to have a voice in the affairs of the nation, without endangering their womanly reserve or subjecting them to the masculine reproach of publicity, or a desire to assume the offices and powers of men!
It is not recorded that they were more unreasonable than men, or more disposed to disputations, or that they ever abused their privileges! Neither do we find that they ever encroached upon the powers granted them, or “meddled with that which did not belong to them.” They never manifested any desire to become warriors, or Sachems, or chiefs; but, on the contrary, planted corn, dressed deer-skins, and worked wampum belts for centuries without a murmur, and their pale sisters might more contentedly follow their example if treated with the same deference and consideration!
The land, they said, belonged to the warriors who defended it, and to the women who tilled it, and who were also the mothers and wives of the warriors, and if the men had not degraded themselves by intemperance and left themselves to be bribed to act dishonestly, and make treaties contrary to the rules of their people, and the judgment of the best men and all the women, their glory would not have thus faded away! [[44]]
CHAPTER III.
THE RELIGION OF THE IROQUOIS.
The council fire was the watchword in Indian government, in Indian politics, and Indian life. Around it old and young rallied on all occasions of public interest, and connected with it were the most delightful associations, memories, and legends of Indian history.
Indian eloquence has been the theme of poet and historian, and it was at the council fire that the enthusiasm of the orator was kindled; here the war-song awoke its echoes; here was heard
“The sound of revelry by night,”
when victory filled their hearts with rejoicing; and here were celebrated their solemn feasts.
When they gathered together, they came over the mountain and through the valley; crossed the silvery lake and the flowing river; listened to the music of the winds among the forest boughs, the songs of the birds, and the rippling of the waters; and to their quick impulsive spirits, all the voices of nature were inspiration.
The kindling of the council fire was the signal for the display of their eloquence, when danger threatened from their enemies, and their young men panted for the war-path; and when they returned, around its glowing embers [[45]]was chanted the mournful requiem for those who had fallen in battle. Here, too, were offered the prayers that they might be taken to the “happy home beyond the setting sun;” and here, at each returning festival, the song of thanksgiving went up to heaven, with the burning incense, for the good gifts which were showered upon the people.
There was little of what we term social life among the Indians. There were among them large villages, but there were no streets. They had houses and occupied them during some portion of the year, season after season, perhaps for centuries; but still they were considered, in a measure, temporary abodes. The hunters left them many months in the winter, for their excursions into distant forests, and the warriors were often absent weeks, and sometimes years. Often the women accompanied them on the war path and the hunting tour, and they returned to their homes, as to a resting-place, till they were ready again to go forth.
At the annual festivals they all gathered, and these were the seasons of sociality, of amusement, and religious instruction.
Not very long ago, a Romish priest visited a small Indian settlement, for the purpose of establishing a church. The people met together to listen to the expounding of the new doctrine and ceremonies; and after respectful attention to all the preacher had to say, an aged chief arose, and deliberately and coolly remarked that he could not see the necessity of a change from their Pagan customs and doctrines to these which had been presented, as they were so similar. So they went on in the old way, and the priest found no foothold for his worse than Pagan mummeries.
The Iroquois believed in a state of future rewards and [[46]]punishments, where the good would be separated from the bad; but they did not descend into the depths of the heart to find sin, or trouble themselves about the motives of action. Their code of morality, as well as religious creed, was very simple; but all that it required they performed.
They believed in one God—Ha-wen-ne-yu—the Great ruler, and ascribed to Him all good. They also believed in the Evil One, who was similar to the Devil of the Bible, as they believed him ever going about doing evil, “seeking whom he might devour.” But they also supposed him to possess creative powers, saying that as God created man and all useful animals, so the Evil-minded created all monsters, noxious reptiles, and poisonous plants. As one delighted in the virtue and happiness of his creatures, the other delighted in discord and unhappiness.
There have been found individuals who worshipped visible and tangible objects; but, as a people, theirs was an entirely spiritual religion, and in this respect, differed from that of all other heathen nations.
The author of “principalities and powers” could not more thoroughly believe in guardian angels, and “princes of the powers of the air,” than these simple people, who never heard of Revelation; and whose Theology, though systematic and well defined, never caused them any wars of words or of more “carnal weapons.” Not only they themselves, but every thing in nature, that was beautiful to the eye or good for food, had a protecting spirit. There was the spirit of fire, of medicine and of water; the spirit of every herb and fruit-bearing tree; the spirit of the oak, the hemlock and the maple; the spirit of the blackberry, the blueberry and the whortleberry; the spirit of spearmint, of peppermint and tobacco; there was a spirit at every fountain and by every running stream, and with [[47]]all they held communion—personifying every mountain and river and lake. The poet has done them no more than justice in the following lines:[1]
“Gwe-u-gwe the lovely! Gwe-u-gwe the bright!
Our bosoms rejoice in thy beautiful sight:
Thou hearest our kah-we-yahs, we bathe in thy flow,
And when we are hungered thy bounties we know.
“In peace now is spread the pure plain of thy waves,
Like the maidens that cast their kind looks on their Braves;
But when the black tempest comes o’er with its sweep,
Like the Braves on their war-path fierce rages thy deep.
“Thou art lovely, when morning breaks forth from the sky,
Thou art lovely when noon hurls his darts from on high,
Thou art lovely, when sunset paints brightly thy brow,
And in moonlight and starlight still lovely art thou.
“Gwe-u-gwe, Gwe-u-gwe, how sad would we be
Were the gloom of our forests not brightened by thee;
Ha-wen-ne-yu would seem from his sons turned away,
Gwe-u-gwe, Gwe-u-gwe, then list to our lay.”
To any person who has taken pains to understand their character or their faith it must be strikingly evident that they were a peculiarly confiding and loving people. Their God was emphatically a God of love. They could not easily comprehend how the Good Spirit could meditate evil to any of his children. They looked up to him with confidence, and not only said and believed, but felt that he heard them and granted their prayers.
Some of the Indian nations expected to hunt and fish in the other world, and engage in all the occupations which employ them in this. But the Iroquois divested it more entirely of its sensual nature. All that was [[48]]beautiful in this world their imaginations transferred to the next; and though they believed they took their bodies, and retained all their faculties, it was for pleasure and never for toil. There was “no marriage or giving in marriage,” but families would recognize each other, and all live in one universal brotherhood, where neither dissension nor sorrow could enter, and where there was no more death. No people of whom we have any knowledge are so thoroughly imbued with religious sentiment, though it seldom became exalted into enthusiasm. It is simple trust and love, and pervaded all their thoughts and actions.
They had no governmental officers whose sole duty it was to regulate public affairs, and no religious teachers who devoted all their time to the “spiritual concerns” of the people. But there were some who had special duties to perform when they assembled for their festivals, who were called “keepers of the faith,” and, in accordance with their universal custom, in promoting women, they, as well as men, were honored with this office.
They opened the ceremonies by some appropriate address, exercised a general supervision during the celebrations and presided at the feasts. Neither Sachems, chiefs, warriors, or keepers of the faith received any compensation for the duties they performed, or wore any distinguishing costume.
During the year there were six national festivals, at which the ceremonies and observances were nearly the same; and all were of a decidedly religious character, and so conducted that they were looked forward to as seasons of enjoyment, in which all had an equal interest. There was not a class of religious and a class of irreligious people—a portion who lifted their hearts to God in gratitude and sung thanksgivings, and another portion [[49]]who “cared for none of these things;” they were one nation, one church and one people, with the same government, the same temple and the same faith. Yet there were no penalties for disobedience, no excommunications, no anathemas and no proselyting. They were indeed a strange people, and one is sometimes tempted to doubt whether they were entirely human, but I think it would certainly be above, rather than below, the human family that they would occupy a place! It seems marvellous to those who have been all their lives attempting to unravel and perfect the complicated machinery of society, that whole nations could exist for centuries exemplifying to perfection the command of Paul, “to learn in whatever state they are in to be content.”
There are many customs among them now that seem to have been obtained from the Jesuit missionaries who with their characteristic zeal were so early among them. Their strings of wampum by which they confess their sins bear a great resemblance to the beads of the Catholics, yet they seem to have no idea of atonement for sin.
The first festival was held in the spring when the sap began to flow, to return thanks to the maple for its sweet juices, and also to God for having given it to his red children. Dancing constituted a part of their religious worship, and they believed was particularly pleasing to Ha-wen-ne-yu. They had thirty-two distinct dances, and some of them were exceedingly graceful and beautiful. They danced all the way through this world and expected to dance in Heaven. They were not so much given to praying as to giving thanks, and only one festival was appointed for the purpose of asking a blessing. This was at the planting season, to implore that the “seed time and harvest” be one of prosperity, and that the earth might yield abundantly for their food. [[50]]
The strawberry was one of their delicacies, and one which they believed they were to enjoy in another world. Some of them indeed expected the felicity of Heaven to consist in one continual strawberry feast, and this is something from which the most cultivated palate will not revolt, and is a proof that there was a great degree of refinement in their taste! So they had a special festival to give thanks for the Strawberry; another called the Green Corn festival, when the corn, and beans, and squashes ripened; another after the harvest, and a New Year’s festival, which was the great jubilee of the Six Nations.
The ceremonies at each festival were nearly the same. They gathered in summer under the green boughs, and first made preparations for a great feast, which consisted of all the good things an Indian wife’s storehouse could furnish, and which was conducted with the utmost order and solemnity.
After the feast, the men indulged in various sports and games, which were trials of strength and skill, and then was called the Council, at the opening of which, a speech was made, of which the following is a specimen.
“Friends and relatives:—The sun, the ruler of the day, is high in his path, and we must hasten to do our duty. We are assembled to observe an ancient custom. It is an institution handed down by our forefathers. It was given to them by the Great Spirit. He has ever required them to return thanks for all the blessings they receive. We have always endeavored to live faithful to this wise command.
“Friends and relatives:—It is to perform this duty that we are this day gathered together. The season when the maple tree yields its sweet waters has again returned. We are all thankful that it is so. We therefore expect all to join in one general thanksgiving to the Maple. We [[51]]also expect you to join in a thanksgiving to the Great Spirit who has wisely made this tree for the good of man. We hope and expect order and harmony will prevail.
“Friends and relatives:—We are gratified to see so many here, and we thank you that you have all thought well of this matter. We thank the Great Spirit that he has been so kind to many of us in sparing our lives to participate in the festivities of the season.”
During the session of the council, several similar addresses were made, accompanied by advice, intended to inspire them with a desire to live as they knew would be pleasing to the Great Spirit; when the services of the day were closed with a dance, called the Great Father dance “which was very spirited and beautiful:” for this there was a peculiar costume prescribed, and in it all joined. After this followed other dances, and then a thanksgiving address to the Great Spirit, during which, they continually threw tobacco upon the fire, that their words might ascend to Heaven upon the incense. It was only when addressing the Great Spirit directly that they used incense.
“Great Spirit, who dwellest above, listen now to the words of thy people here assembled. The smoke of our offering arises. Give kind attention to our words as they arise to Thee in the smoke. We thank Thee for this return of the planting season. Give to us a good season that our crops may be plentiful.
“Continue to listen, for the smoke yet arises (throwing on Tobacco). Preserve us from all pestilential diseases. Give strength to us that we may not fall. Preserve our old men among us, and protect the young. Help us to celebrate with feeling the ceremonies of the season. Guide the minds of thy people that they may remember Thee in all their actions.” [[52]]
The poet has rendered this prayer in the following words:[2]
“Mighty, mighty, Ha-wen-ne-yu, Spirit, pure and mighty! hear us,
We thine own Ho-de-no-sonne, wilt thou be for ever near us!
Keep the sacred flame still burning! guide our chase, our planting cherish.
Make our warrior hearts yet taller! let our foes before us perish!
Kindly watch our waving harvests! make each Sachem’s wisdom deeper!
Of our old men! of our women, of our children be the keeper!
Mighty Ha-wen-ne-yu, Spirit pure and mighty hear us!
We thine own Ho-de-no-sonne, wilt thou be for ever near us!
“Mighty, mighty, Ha-wen-ne-yu, thou dost, Spirit, purest, greatest,
Love thine own Ho-de-no-sonne, thou as well their foemen hatest.
Panther’s heart and eye of eagle, moose’s foot and fox’s cunning,
Thou dost give our valiant people when the war path’s blood is running!
But the eye of owl in daylight, foot of turtle, heart of woman,
Stupid brain of bear in winter, to our valiant people’s foemen;
Mighty, holy, Hah-wen-ne-yu! Spirit pure and mighty! hear us.
We thine own Ho-de-no-sonne, wilt thou be for ever near us!
Yah-hah for ever near us! wilt thou be for ever near us!”
If there was not an abundance of rain, so that the corn did not flourish after it was planted, they often called another council, and held another festival, to pray for rain. At this time they addressed Heno, the Thunderer, in whose power it was to form clouds, and give water to refresh the earth. He was to the Indian what Jupiter was to the Roman, and inspired him with the same terror. He could inflict great evil, and calamities were ascribed to his vengeance. He was subject, as were all the lesser spirits, to Ha-wen-ne-yu, but was yet very powerful. He is represented in the form of a man, in the costume of a warrior, with a feather upon his head, which, like the wand [[53]]of the fairy, preserved him from the influence of the Evil-Minded, and procured him whatever he desired. On his back he carried a basket filled with stones, which he threw at witches and evil spirits, as he rode through the clouds. The Great Spirit was implored to take care of him, and at every festival thanks were rendered to Heno, and supplications made for his watchful goodness. They called themselves his Grandchildren; and if the earth was parched, and the plants were withering, they met and laid before him their distresses.
“Heno, our Grandfather, now listen to the words of thy Grandchildren. We feel grieved. Our minds are sorely troubled. We fear our supporters will fail, and bring famine upon us. We ask our Grandfather to come and give us rain, that the earth may not dry up, and refuse to produce us support. Thy Grandchildren all send their salutations to their Grandfather.”
Fearing that some of the people had done wrong, and it was for their sins that the “early and latter rains” were withheld, they, at the same time, prayed to the Great Spirit, throwing tobacco upon the fire, that their words might reach his ear and prove acceptable.
“Great Spirit, listen to the words of thy suffering children. They come to thee with pure minds. If they have done wrong, they have confessed and turned their minds. Be kind to us. Hear our grievances and supply our wants. Direct that Heno may come and give us rain, that our supporters may not fail, and famine come to our homes.”
Those who have been in the habit of thinking the Indians a godless, prayerless, and perfectly heathen race, will read, with surprise, those outpourings of their hearts in perfect love and trust, and their simple dependence upon the Great Giver for all they enjoyed. If they did [[54]]wrong, they believed He would forgive them; if they did right, they believed He approved and loved them. They had no Sabbaths, yet they instituted regular periods of worship and formal ceremonies. These periods were indicated to them by natural events, and they heeded the voice of the spring-time and harvest, and “looked through nature up to Nature’s God.”
At the strawberry festival, the feast consisted entirely of strawberries, eaten with maple sugar, in bark trays; and it was at these feasts alone that they all ate together, and before partaking, they were accustomed to say grace, as devoutly and reverentially as Christian people.
A popular poet has thus rendered the thanksgiving prayer at the strawberry festival, which was repeated at every returning season, when they met to express their gratitude for this delicious fruit:[3]
“Earth, we thank thee! thy great frame
Bears the stone from whence we came;
And the boundless sweeping gloom,
Of our glorious league the Home.
Thou the strawberry’s seed dost fold,
Thou its little roots dost hold,
First of all the fruits that raise
Gifts for us in summer days.
Thanks, too, thanks we give thee, lowly
Ha-wen-ne-yu, great and holy!
Maker wise! of all the sire—
Earth and water, air and fire.
Water, thanks! we safely glide,
On thy bosom long and wide;
Thou dost give the strawberry vine
Drink when hot the sunbeams shine,
Till its leaves spread fresh and bright,
And its buds burst forth in white. [[55]]
Thanks, too, thanks we give thee, lowly,
Ha-wen-ne-yu, great and holy!
Maker wise! of all the sire—
Earth and water, air and fire.
Air, we thank thee for the breeze,
Sweeping off the dire disease:
Thou dost bring the gentle rains;
Thou dost cool our feverish veins;
Thou dost kiss the strawberry flower,
Till its little wreath of snow
Swings its fragrance to and fro.
Thanks, too, thanks we give thee, lowly
Ha-wen-ne-yu, great and holy!
Maker wise! of all the sire—
Earth and water, air and fire!
Fire, we thank thee for thy ball,
With its glory brightening all;
And the blaze which warms our blood,
Lights our weed, and cooks our food.
To thy glance the strawberry swells,
With its ripening particles,
Till the fruit is at our tread,
In its beauty, rich and red.
Thanks, too, thanks we give thee, lowly,
Ha-wen-ne-yu, great and holy:
Maker wise! of all the sire—
Earth and water, air and fire!”
At the green corn festival, the feast consisted principally of succotash, which is supposed by many to be a Yankee dish, but which dates farther back than centuries, and is purely Indian, being a soup of corn, and beans, boiled together. Any thing in the way of soup can scarcely be more delicious.
But the grand Indian jubilee was the New Year’s festival, held in the month of February. [[56]]
This festival lasted nine days, and the ceremonies commenced by two persons, generally of those called Keepers of the Faith, making a call at every house morning and evening, dressed so as to disguise the real personages.
They would envelope themselves in buffalo or bearskins fastened about their heads with wreaths of corn-husks, and falling loosely over the body or girdled about the loins. Their arms and wrists, too, were ornamented with wreaths of husks, and in their hands they took corn pounders. On entering a house they knocked upon the floor to command silence, and then made a speech.
“Listen, listen, listen. The ceremonies which the Great Spirit commanded us to perform, are about to commence. Prepare your houses. Clear away the rubbish, drive out all evil animals; we wish nothing to obstruct the coming observances. We enjoin every one to obey our requirements. Should any of your friends be taken sick and die, we command you not to mourn for them, nor allow any of your friends to mourn. But lay the body aside and enjoy the coming ceremonies with us; when they are over we will mourn with you.”
When the address was finished they sang a thanksgiving song and departed, to repeat the ceremony in every house.
And so scrupulous were they in performing these ceremonies, that if a person did die during this festival, the body was put aside, and no evidence of sorrow was visible till the end of the nine days, when the usual funeral rites were performed, and the mourning hymns were chanted as if the calamity had just occurred.
In all their religious festivals they had only one sacrifice, and this was at the beginning of the year.
All white animals were considered consecrated to the Great Spirit, as white was the emblem of purity and faith. [[57]]But dogs alone were sacrificed. On the first day of the festival one was chosen, and sometimes two, “without spot or blemish,” and strangled, carefully avoiding shedding of blood or breaking the bones. He was then painted with red spots and decorated with feathers, and around his neck hung a string of wampum. He was then suspended in the air about twenty feet from the ground, where he remained till the fifth day, when he was taken down and burned on an altar of wood. As they did not recognize any species of atonement, believing that good deeds balanced the evil, this could not have been a sacrifice for sin, as superficial observers supposed, neither was it a scape-goat to carry away the sins of the people. Their sins had nothing to do with it. The dog was a favorite animal, and they believed a favorite with the Great Spirit, and therefore burned him, that his spirit might ascend to heaven with their petitions, that they might find favor in the eyes of God.
As they laid him upon the altar, the great thanksgiving address was made, whilst tobacco was continually thrown upon the fire that their prayers might ascend upon the clouds of smoke, and is curious as a specimen of a heathen prayer.
“Hail! hail! hail! Listen now with an open ear to the words of thy people, as they ascend to thy dwelling in the smoke of thy offering. Look down upon us beneficently.
“Continue to listen: The united voice of thy people continues to ascend to thee. Give us power to celebrate at all times with zeal and fidelity the sacred ceremonies which thou hast given us. Continue to listen: We thank thee that the lives of so many of thy children are spared, to participate in these ceremonies. Give to our warriors and mothers strength to perform thy sacred ceremonies. [[58]]We thank thee that thou hast preserved them pure unto this day.
“We thank thee that the lives of so many of thy children are spared to participate in the ceremonies of this occasion.
“We give thanks to our mother the earth which sustains us. We thank thee that thou hast caused her to yield so plentifully of her fruits. Cause that in the coming season, she may not withhold of her fulness, and leave any to suffer want.
“We return thanks to the rivers and streams, and thank thee that thou hast supplied them with life, for our comfort and happiness. Grant that this blessing may continue.
“We return thanks to all the herbs and plants of the earth. We return thanks to the three sisters. We return thanks to the bushes and trees which provide us with fruit. We thank thee that thou hast blest them and made them produce for the good of thy creatures. We return thanks to the winds, which moving have banished all diseases. We thank thee that thou hast thus ordered.
“We return thanks to our grandfather Heno. We thank thee that thou hast provided the rain, to give us water, and to cause all plants to grow. We ask thee to continue these great blessings.
“We return thanks to the moon and stars which give us light when the sun has gone to rest. Continue to us this goodness. We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon us with a beneficent eye. We thank thee, that thou bast in thy unbounded wisdom commanded the sun to regulate the seasons, to dispense heat and cold, and to watch over the comfort of thy people. Give unto us wisdom that will guide us in the path of truth. Keep us from all evil ways, that the sun may never hide his [[59]]face from us for shame, and leave us in darkness. Lastly, we return thanks to thee, our Creator and Ruler. In thee are embodied all things. We believe that thou canst do no evil; that thou doest all things for our good and happiness. Be kind to us, as thou hast been to our fathers, in times long gone by. Hearken unto our words as they have ascended; and may they be pleasing to thee, our Creator, the preserver and ruler of all things, visible and invisible.”
All the ceremonies upon these festival days were not strictly religious, but consisted of various sports and pastimes for amusement. On one day all the people went about making calls, in little parties. One of each group carried a wooden shovel, and immediately after entering the house, began to stir the ashes, and then to scatter a little upon the hearth, invoking the blessing of the Great Spirit upon the household.
Another amusement was to form little parties to go about and collect materials for a feast. Each family was expected to contribute something. If the messengers entered a house and nothing was bestowed, they were justified in taking whatever they could, without, at the time, being discovered. If undetected, they were allowed to bear away their treasures; but if detected, they were obliged immediately to give them up and try again. A feast was made with the avails of their begging and purloining, and a dance followed.
Another diversion was the guessing of dreams. Some person went about from house to house telling a wonderful dream he had had, and requesting any one who pleased to relate it. Whether those who attempted, guessed rightly or not, the dreamer after a while acknowledged that the true interpretation had been given, and then he was obliged [[60]]to pay a forfeit, and whatever was required, he cheerfully performed, however great the sacrifice.
There was a great variety of games, and the design and effect of all their festivities was, in addition to their spiritual improvement, to promote friendly feeling and healthy exhilaration; and, in this, the children of darkness were certainly wiser in their generation than some of the children of light! Those who thought it necessary to the honor of religion that all merriment should be banished from the domestic and social circle, might have learned something from the forest heathen, whom they were in the habit of pronouncing utterly benighted. The Catholics adopted the policy of baptizing paganism, wherever they went. Instead of requiring the heathen to give up their national or religious ceremonies, they engrafted them upon their own, and thus removed all obstacles to their becoming, or being called Christians. The Puritans went to the other extreme, and would allow little that bore the name pleasure. The pagan must renounce not only his religion but his health, in order to became a faithful servant of the Lord. Every thing that was natural was “carnal,” and thus religion became repulsive, and, in the eyes of many, synonymous with every thing disagreeable. In a system which differed from this they could see no good thing, and were sadly deficient in a knowledge of human nature, and the facility of becoming all things to all men, thereby to save some. In throwing off the fetters of superstition they were scarcely in advance of the red men of the wilderness. The beliefs of the Christian and pagan in witches almost entirely coincided, and the manner of punishing them was nearly the same. The stories of ghosts and hobgoblins to which I listened in childhood, and which were related in perfect good faith are not less [[61]]ridiculous or more indicative of heathen blindness than those which I hear in the wigwam.
The fables, fairy tales, and rural sports of our Saxon ancestors have never been recorded as evidence of their inferiority, or as very heinous misdemeanors. Their descendants have felt it to be a duty to honor them, and have clothed their customs in the garb of fascination; neither their ferocity, their barbarism, nor their superstitions have been held up to scorn. The dark side of the picture has been kept entirely out of view. Pages and volumes have been devoted also by historians to the Olympic and Pythian games, and the “crowns of the victors;” yet they involved no more light, or knowledge, or skill, and far less moral purity than the national games of the sons of the forest. The Indian had no laurel wreaths, believing that to excel was sufficient; but his code of honor was as nice as that of feudal lords in the days of chivalry, and no Indian ventured to incur censure by transgressing the rules of courtesy. In their dances it was the custom for women to choose their partners, and no warrior thought of offering his hand to a maiden till she had signified that it would be agreeable to her!
The Aztecs were more advanced in many respects than the Iroquois; but their worship was a continued series of bloody sacrifices, without any of that beautiful spirituality which we see in those who drew near to the Great Spirit, not only with their lips but with their hearts, and recognized his fostering care in all the events of their lives.
The sacrifice of dogs was universal among all the North American Indians; but for a long time it was alluded to as a heathenish custom, without any attempt to understand its import. Cotton Mather speaks of it by saying, “That the Indians, in their wars with us, finding a sore inconvenience by our dogs, sacrificed a dog to the devil, after [[62]]which no English dog would bark at an Indian for divers months ensuing.” This would imply that the devil had an interpreter, in order to understand the nature of the sacrifice, and the manner of influencing the dog; for the author does not give him the credit of being so thorough a linguist as to understand himself, as appears by the following affirmation.—“Once finding that the dæmons in a possessed young woman understood the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, my curiosity induced me to make trial of this Indian language, and the dæmons did seem as if they did not understand it.”[4] And as the Indians were considered little less than demons themselves, a learned divine was excusable for not attempting to acquaint himself with their language or their character.
But there are those rising up among themselves who will wipe out this stain upon their national honor, and vindicate the faith and the customs of their fathers.
Since wars and rumors of wars have ceased, there has been some attempt to understand Indian character and habits, and they have been found to be no worse, at least, than those of other heathen nations, who were the inhabitants of classic Greece and Rome.
The Jews held three yearly festivals, and several monthly festivals; and one was in commemoration of the first fruits, and another at the in-gathering of harvest, and another at the commencement of the year.
Among the Iroquois there were no particular ceremonies of purification; but among some of the Western tribes, there was a custom which resembled that of the Jews, when they used scarlet, and cedar, and hyssop.
Dogs were not sacrificed by the Jews; but these were the only domestic animals the Indians had. At the death [[63]]of his friend, Patroclus sacrificed two dogs of purest white, saying, “To the gods the purest things must be offered.” The Greeks and Romans each had a festival, which lasted nine days, the ceremonies of which were strikingly similar to those which attended the annual thank offerings which went up in the forest and on the prairie, by the lake and the streamlet in the American wilderness. But when we read that the Indian ornamented himself with the husks of his favorite zea-maize, and went from house to house with a basket to gather offerings from the people, we call it heathenish and barbarous, while the story of Ceres, the goddess of corn, whose head was ornamented with sheafs, and who held in her hand a hoe and basket, is picturesque and beautiful!
To make dancing a part of a religious festival, is, among Indians, irreverent and grovelling. While we are taught to read, with pious emotion, how Miriam and her maidens went out with timbrels and dances to celebrate the overthrow of the Egyptians, and the women of all the cities of Israel came forth singing and dancing, and exclaimed, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands,” and David, the man after God’s own heart, “danced before the Lord.”
The sacred fire in the temple of Vesta was kept ever burning, and the Romans looked upon the extinguishing of the vestal flame as a prognostication of the destruction of their city. In all this there is not so much of poetry or beauty or purity as dwelt in the bosom of those who kindled the mysterious council fire in the heart of the forest, to burn for ever as a symbol of the love and patriotism which glowed in the bosoms of those who rallied around it, and called themselves the UNITED PEOPLE.
The nymphs and naiads of the woods of Greece and Italy are the embellishments of every classic song, but [[64]]they are no more beautiful than the guardian-spirits of every tree and leaf and flower with which the imagination of the Indian peopled our own forest wilds.
The Christian orator goes back to those dark days of ignorance and superstition for the allusions which are to give point and brilliancy to his metaphors, and the poems which have for their framework the grossest of all heathen mythology are still the text-books, for years, of Christian students, whose mission is to preach the Gospel to all the nations of the earth.
We read of Indian women who were Keepers of the Faith, and revolt at their incantations and unintelligible mummeries, but our delicacy is thought in no danger from being initiated into the mysteries of the Priestess of Apollo, the oracles of Delhi and the feasts of Eleusinia.
The wealthy virgins of Greece and Rome were present with fruits in golden baskets at Bacchanalian revels, but they have never been held up as monsters, while our school-books have teemed with amours of gods and goddesses, such as find no place on the darkest pages of Indian lore.
We listen to the story of the woman in the moon, who is constantly employed in weaving a net, which a cat ravels whenever she sleeps, and that the world is to come to an end when the net is finished, and call it ridiculous. While the story of Penelope weaving her purple web by day to be unraveled by night, and thus prolong the absence of her husband Ulysses, who went to the siege of Troy, is a conception worthy of being expanded into a poem of a thousand lines, and translated into all languages.
The Indian had no Cupids, or their representatives, to attend the affairs of the heart, but he had charms which obtained the love of any fair maiden whom he desired, and charms which secured him the love of his wife during his [[65]]long absence on the war-path and hunting excursions, and made every thing that he could do bright and beautiful in her eyes. And they had no Bacchus to preside at drunken revels, for they “did not tarry long at the wine, or look upon it when it was red.” But they had spirits to preside at the pure fountain, where alone they went to slake their thirst.
Human sacrifices were offered annually among the Aztecs, but never among the Iroquois. But even these were not entirely the result of Indian barbarity. “Human sacrifices have been practised by many nations, not excepting the most polished nations of antiquity.” “They were of frequent occurrence among the Greeks, as every school-boy knows, and in Egypt. In Rome they were so common as to require to be interdicted by an express law, less than a hundred years before the Christian Era,—a law recorded in a very honest strain of exultation by Pliny, notwithstanding which, traces of the existence of the practice may be discerned to a much later period.”[5]
Zurita was an eminent jurist from Spain, who resided nineteen years among the Aztecs, and is indignant that they should be called barbarians, saying, “It is an epithet which could come from no one who had personal knowledge of the capacity of the people or their institutions, and which in some respects is quite as well merited by Europeans.”
If the Aztecs did not deserve the term barbarians, surely I shall be thought just in denying the term savage to belong to the Iroquois; and from their mythology, if nothing else, it is evident that they were destitute neither of genius nor of poetry. They were heathen and Pagans, but not savages, and before we boast that we have attained [[66]]unto perfection, let us remember that Spiritualists and Mormons have arisen in the nineteenth century, and multitudes have wended their way to Salt Lake City, who were trained in the churches of New England!
[[67]]
CHAPTER IV.
CUSTOMS AND INDIVIDUAL TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
The more I read, and the better I understand Indian history, the more am I impressed with the injustice which has been done the Iroquois, not only in dispossessing them of their inheritance, but in the estimation which has been made of their character. They have been represented, as seen in the transition state, the most unfavorable possible for judging them correctly.
In the chapter upon National Traits of Character, I have, in two or three instances, quoted Washington Irving, and might again allow his opinions to relieve my own from the charge of partiality.
He says, in speaking of this same subject, that “the current opinion of Indian character is too apt to be formed from the miserable hordes which infest the frontiers, and hang on the skirts of settlements. These are too commonly composed of degenerate beings, corrupted and enfeebled by the vices of society, without being benefited by its civilization. The proud independence which formed the main pillar of native virtue, has been shaken down, and the whole moral fabric lies in ruins. Their spirits are humiliated and debased by a sense of inferiority, and their native courage cowed and daunted by the superior knowledge and power of their enlightened neighbors. Society has advanced upon them like one of those withering [[68]]airs that will sometimes breed desolation over a whole region of fertility. It has enervated their strength, multiplied their diseases, and superinduced upon their original barbarity the low vices of artificial life. It has given them a thousand superfluous wants, while it has diminished their means of mere existence. It has driven before it the animals of the chase, who fly from the sound of the axe and the smoke of the settlement, and seek refuge in the depths of remote forests and yet untrodden wilds. Thus do we often find the Indians on our frontiers to be mere wrecks and remnants of once powerful tribes, who have lingered in the vicinity of settlements, and sunk into precarious and vagabond existence. Poverty, repining and hopeless poverty, a canker of the mind before unknown to them, corrodes their spirits, and blights every free and noble quality of their natures. They loiter like vagrants about the settlements, among spacious dwellings replete with elaborate comforts, which only render them sensible of the comparative wretchedness of their own condition. Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes; but they are excluded from the banquet. Plenty revels over the fields; but they are starving in the midst of its abundance. The whole wilderness has blossomed into a garden; but they feel as reptiles that infest it. How different was their state while undisputed lords of the soil! Their wants were few, and the means of gratification within their reach. They saw every one around them sharing the same lot, enduring the same hardships, feeding on the same aliments, arrayed in the same rude garments.
“No roof then rose that was not open to the homeless stranger; no smoke curled among the trees, but he was welcome to sit down by its fire, and join the hunter in his repast. [[69]]
“In discussing Indian character, writers have been too prone to indulge in vulgar prejudice and passionate exaggeration, instead of the candid temper of true philosophy. They have not sufficiently considered the peculiar circumstances in which the Indians have been placed, and the peculiar principles under which they have been educated. No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind. The moral laws which govern him are few; but he conforms to them all; the white man abounds in laws of religion, morals, and manners, but how many does he violate?
“In their intercourse with the Indians, the white people were continually trampling upon their religion, and their sacred rights. They were expected to look meekly on while the grave was robbed of its treasures, and the bones of their fathers were left to bleach upon the field. And when exasperated by the brutality of their conquerors, and driven to deeds of vengeance, there was very little appreciation of the motives which influenced them, and no attempt to palliate their cruelties.”
It was their custom to bury with the dead their best clothing, and the various implements they had been in the habit of using whilst living. If it was a warrior they were preparing for burial, they placed his tomahawk by his side, and his knife in his shield; with the hunter, his bow and arrow, and implements for cooking his food; with the women, their kettles, and cooking apparatus, and also food for all. Tobacco was deposited in every grave, for to smoke was an Indian’s idea of felicity in the body and out of it, and in this there was not so much difference as one might wish, between them and gentlemen of paler hue.
Among the Iroquois, and many other Indian nations, [[70]]it was the custom to place the dead upon scaffolds built for this purpose, from tree to tree, or within a temporary inclosure, and underneath a fire was kept burning for several days.
They had probably known instances of persons reviving after they were supposed to be dead; and this led to the conclusion, that the spirit sometimes returned to animate the body, after it had once fled. If there were no signs of life for ten days, the fire was extinguished, and the body left unmolested, till decomposition had begun to take place, when the remains were buried, or as was often the case, kept in the lodge for years. If they were obliged to desert a settlement where they had long resided, these skeletons were collected from all the families, and buried in one common grave, with the same ceremonies as when a single individual was interred.
They did not suppose the spirit was instantaneously transferred from earth to heaven, but that it wandered in aerial regions for many moons. In later days they allow only ten days for its flight. Their period of mourning continues only whilst the spirit is wandering; as soon as they believe it has entered heaven, they commence rejoicing, saying, there is no longer cause for sorrow, because it is now where happiness dwells for ever. Sometimes a piteous wailing was kept up every night for a long time, but it was only their own bereavement that they bewailed, as they had no fear about the fate of those who died. Not till they had heard of Purgatory from the Jesuits, or of endless woe from Protestants, did they look upon death with terror, or life as any thing but a blessing.
They were sometimes in the habit of addressing the dead, as if they could hear. The following are the words of a mother, as she bent over her son, to look for the last time upon his beloved face. [[71]]
“My son, listen once more to the words of thy mother. Thou wast brought into life with her pains; thou wast nourished with her life. She has attempted to be faithful in raising thee up. When thou wert young she loved thee as her life. Thy presence has been a source of great joy to her. Upon thee she depended for support and comfort in her declining days. But thou hast outstripped her and gone before. Our great and wise Creator has ordered it thus. By His will I am left to taste more of the miseries of this world. Thy friends and relations have gathered about thy body, to look upon thee for the last time. They mourn as with one mind thy departure from among us. We too have but a few days more and our journey will be ended. We part now, and you are conveyed from our sight. But we shall soon meet again, and shall look upon each other. Then we shall part no more. Our Maker has called thee to his home. Thither will we follow.”
It has been said and written that the Indians were in the habit of murdering the aged to get them out of the way. There might have occurred, once in a century, an instance when, to relieve great suffering, an aged person was put to death. If they were on a long journey, or there was great scarcity, they might do this from pure kindness and benevolence, but not to save themselves trouble.
After the adoption of the League of the Iroquois, and they dwelt together in villages, this was one of the duties enjoined by their religious teachers at their festivals—“It is the will of the Great Spirit that you reverence the aged, even though they be helpless as infants.” And also “kindness to the orphan, and hospitality to all.”
“If you tie up the clothes of an orphan child, the Great Spirit will notice it and reward you for it.”
“To adopt orphans, and bring them up in virtuous ways, is pleasing to the Great Spirit.” [[72]]
“If a stranger wanders about your abode, welcome him to your home, be hospitable towards him, speak to him with kind words, and forget not always to mention the Great Spirit.”
Upon the opening of their morning councils, a ceremony of condolence was performed, and an appropriate speech delivered in memory of those who had died or been slain in battle since their last meeting. The ceremonies on these occasions were very solemn, and their speeches full of pathos and tenderness. The funerals of chiefs, warriors, and distinguished women were attended by the heads of tribes, and all their people; and the respect in which they held their women is evinced by the honors they paid them when dead, being the same as those they bestowed upon chiefs and warriors.
Their lamentations on being driven far away from the graves of their fathers have been the theme of all historians and travellers.
Said an Indian chief, in his remonstrance against the treaty that was to remove the remnant of the Six Nations beyond the Mississippi, “We cannot go to the west, and leave the graves of our fathers to the care of strangers. The unhallowed clods would lie heavily upon our bosoms in that distant land if we should do this.”
“Bury me by my grandmother,” said a little boy of seven years of age, a few moments before his death. “She used to be kind to me.”
“Lay me in the churchyard by my mother,” said a little orphan girl, who had been under the care of the missionaries, when she learned she could not recover.
“I shall be sorry if we must go far away to the west,” said an aged woman, who had seen eighty winters, “for I had hoped to be laid by my mother in yonder churchyard.” [[73]]
“In ancient times they had a beautiful custom of capturing a bird, and freeing it over the grave on the evening of burial, to bear away the spirit to its heavenly rest.” And their anxiety to obtain the bodies of their warriors slain in battle, and the impossibility of leaving the aged and helpless to die alone in the wilderness, was the result of a belief that the souls of those who received not the burial rites wandered about restless and unhappy.
It may be easily imagined that a people who so loved their homes and revered their fathers’ graves, would become fierce with indignation and rage, on seeing themselves treated as without human feeling and the sacred relics of the dead ploughed up and scattered as indifferently as the stones, or the bones of the moose and the deer of the forest. It was this feeling which often prompted them to acts of hostility, which those who experienced them ascribed to wanton cruelty and barbarity. An instance occurred in New England, where the grave of a Sachem’s mother was robbed of the skins which had been placed there for her use, and the chieftain gathered his people together and exhorted them to revenge. In him it was the promptings of filial piety, and the dictates of his religion. He thus speaks:
“When last the glorious light of all the sky was underneath this globe, and birds grew silent, I began, as my custom is, to take repose. Before mine eyes were fast closed, methought I saw a vision, at which my spirit was much troubled, and trembling at that doleful sight the spirit cried aloud—‘Behold, my son, whom I have cherished, see the breasts that gave thee suck, the hands that lapped thee warm, and fed thee oft. Canst thou forget to take revenge of those wild people who have defaced my monuments, disdaining our antiquities and honorable customs? See now the Sachem’s grave lies like the common [[74]]people, defaced by an ignoble race. Thy mother doth complain, and implores thy aid against those thievish people, who have newly intruded upon our land. If this be suffered I shall not rest quiet in my everlasting habitation.’ ”
A tribe has been known to visit the spot which had been, in former times, the burial place of their people, though long deserted, and spend hours in silent meditation; and not till every hope had died in their bosoms, or the last drop of blood was shed, did they leave the sod which covered the dust of any of their kindred to the footsteps of the stranger.
To their hospitality I have often alluded, and there are many anecdotes to illustrate this trait in their character. The selfishness which they continually saw in those who were greedy of gain, was something which they could not comprehend.
In many of their villages there was a Stranger’s Home—a house for strangers, where they were placed, while the old men went about collecting skins for them to sleep upon, and food for them to eat, expecting no reward.
They called it very rude for people to stare at them, as they passed in the streets, and said that they had as much curiosity as white people, but they did not gratify it by intruding upon them and examining them. They would sometimes hide behind trees, in order to look at strangers, but never stood openly and gazed at them. Their respectful attention to missionaries was often the result of their rules of politeness, as it is a part of the Indian’s code, that every person should have a respectful hearing. Their councils are eminent for decorum, and no person is interrupted during a speech. Some Indians, after respectfully listening to a missionary, thought they would relate to him some of their legends. But the good man could [[75]]not restrain his indignation, and pronounced them foolish fables, while what he told them was sacred truth. The Indian was, in his turn, offended, and said, “We listen to your stories. Why do you not listen to ours? You are not instructed in the common rules of civility!”
WIGWAM.
A hunter, in his wanderings for game, fell among the back settlements of Virginia, and on account of the inclemency of the weather, sought refuge at the house of a planter, whom he met at his door. He was refused admission. Being both hungry and thirsty, he asked for a bit of bread and a cup of cold water. But the answer to every appeal was, “No, you shall have nothing here. Get you gone, you Indian dog.”
BARK CANOE.
Some months afterwards this same planter lost himself in the woods, and after a weary day of wandering, came to an Indian cabin, into which he was welcomed. On inquiring the way and distance to a settlement, and finding it was too far for him to think of going that night, he asked if he could remain. Very cordially the inmates replied that he was at liberty to stay, and all they had was at his service. They gave him food, they made a bright fire to cheer and warm him, and supplied him with clean deerskins for his couch, and promised to conduct him the next day on his journey. In the morning the Indian hunter and the planter set out together through the forest. When they came in sight of the white man’s dwelling, the hunter, about to leave, turned to his companion, and said, “Do you not know me?” The white man was struck with horror that he had been so long in the power of one whom he had so inhumanly treated, and expected now to experience his revenge. But, on beginning to make excuses, the Indian interrupted him, saying, “When you see poor Indians fainting for a cup of cold water, don’t say again, ‘Get you gone, you Indian dog,’ ” [[76]]and turned back to his hunting grounds. Which best deserved the appellation, Christian? and to which will it be most likely to be said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me?”
CANNASATEGO
Was a chief of the Onondaga nation. Of him Dr. Franklin tells the following story:—Conrad Meyses, an interpreter, who had been naturalized among the Indians, and could speak several of their dialects, was passing through the country on a governmental mission, and stopped at the house of Cannasatego, by whom he was warmly welcomed. Clean furs were spread for him to sit upon, and venison and succotash placed before him to eat. When he was refreshed, and had lighted his pipe, the chief conversed with him cheerfully, asking him concerning his health and prosperity since they had met, and expressing undiminished friendship for his old acquaintances, who were known to both, till the ordinary topics were exhausted, when he revived conversation by asking concerning the customs of white people, which he could not understand.
“Conrad,” said he, “you have lived long among our white neighbors, and know their customs. I have been sometimes at Albany, and have observed that, once in seven days they shut up their shops, and assemble in the great house; tell me what it is for?—what do they do there?”
“They meet there,” said Conrad, “to hear and learn good things.”
“I do not doubt they tell you so,” said the Indian. “They have often told me the same; but I doubt the truth of it; and I will tell you the reason. I went the other day to Albany to sell my skins, and buy powder, [[77]]knives, blankets, &c. I usually trade with Hans Hanson, but I thought this time I would try some other merchant. I went first to Hans, however, and asked him how much he would give for beaver. He said he could not give more than four shillings a pound, but that he could not talk about it then, as it was the day they shut their shops, and went to meeting to hear about good things. I thought, as I could not do any business, I might as well go to the meeting too. So we went together. There stood up a man in black, who began talking very angrily. I could not understand what he said; but as he looked very much at me and Hans, I thought he was angry at seeing me there. So I went out and sat by the door till the meeting broke up. I thought, too, he said something about beaver, and that this might be the subject of their meeting. When they came out, I asked Hans if he had not concluded to give more than four shillings a pound? “No,” said he, “I cannot give so much; I cannot give more than three shillings and sixpence.” I then spoke to several other dealers, and they all sang the same song—three and sixpence—three and sixpence! This made it clear to me that the purpose of the meeting was not to learn good things, but to consult how to cheat Indians, in the price of beaver. Consider but a little Conrad, and you will see that if they met so often to learn good things, they would certainly have learned some before this time. But they are still ignorant. If a white man, in travelling through our country, enters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I do you; we dry him if he is wet; we warm him if he is cold, and give him meat and drink if he is hungry and thirsty; we spread soft furs for him to sleep upon, and ask nothing in return. But if I go into a white man’s house at Albany, and ask for food and drink, they say, “Get out, you Indian dog.” You see they have [[78]]not yet learned those little good things which we need no meetings to be instructed in, because our mothers taught them to us when we were children; and therefore it is impossible their meetings should be for any such purpose, as they say, or have any such effect; they are only to contrive the cheating of Indians in the price of beaver!”
In shrewdness and quickness of perception, the Indian was not at all deficient, and there was a great deal of quiet humor lurking in their natures.
An officer presented a Chief with a medal, on one side of which President Washington was represented as armed with a sword, and on the other, the Indian was burying the hatchet. The Chief saw at once the idea conveyed, and sarcastically asked, “Why does not the President also bury his sword?”
A Swedish minister having assembled several Chiefs, related to them the principal facts on which the Christian religion is founded—the eating of the apple—the coming of Christ to make an atonement—his miracles and sufferings. When he had finished, an Indian orator stood up to thank him: “What you have told us,” said he, “is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to tell us these things you have heard from your mothers.”
Whatever may be said of other nations, the Iroquois certainly considered it a great stain upon their national escutcheon, to violate a treaty, and if any nation belonging to their confederacy was guilty of this breach of honor, it was severely punished. The Delawares were a subjugated nation, and not at liberty to make war without the knowledge and approbation of the confederacy. A treaty had been made with a western nation, and the Delawares invaded their territory, with a full knowledge that they [[79]]were at peace with, and under the protection of the Iroquois. For this they were reprimanded, and forbidden in future to go to war at all, and deprived of all civil authority,—in their phraseology, they made them women! This was a great degradation, as war alone could furnish them an opportunity to gain distinction, and distinction alone could gain them a position of honor in the administration of the government. They had been a very brave and warlike nation, but never afterwards recovered from this humiliation.
There is no instance of the Six Nations having violated a treaty that was legally made, and which they perfectly understood. They were faithful to their British allies, and “poured out their blood like waters,” and in return were deserted and left to the mercy of their enemies. Not till they saw the faithlessness of those whom they had trusted and relied upon, did they turn against them.
Falsehood and evasion were no part of the original character of Indians of any name, and an instance of theft was seldom known among them. Bars and bolts are still strangers in their settlements, and among the unchristianized; the custom still prevails of placing the mortar pestle upon the threshold when the family are all absent, and the famous locks that received the prize at the World’s Fair could not more effectually keep all intruders away, than this simple signal. No Indian thought of entering a cabin where the mortar pestle stood sentinel!
The food of the Indian consisted in the flesh of animals which were killed in the chase, and the few vegetables they cultivated, with corn or maize, which was their staple article; and of this they have three kinds. The white, red, and white-flint. If you ride through an Indian settlement, you will see hundreds of bushels of corn hanging by the braided husks upon poles to dry. When [[80]]fit for use it is pounded in large stone or wooden mortars, and usually by two women at a time. The operation is very similar in appearance to the churning in the old-fashioned dash-churn in New England. When the meal is sufficiently fine to pass through a coarse sieve, it is made into small loaves of unleavened bread, and boiled in large kettles, containing a dozen loaves at a time. It is very palatable and healthy. Hominy was also a favorite dish with the Indians, and is now so common every where that it needs no description.
From the Indian, too, are obtained the knowledge of tobacco, and in the use of this, “all nations of every kindred, tongue, and people,” have shown their appreciation of Indian taste and refinement. It is strange that civilized people should have so generally adopted their most filthy and uncivilized habit!
Maple sugar must have been in use among them for centuries, “as is proved by their festival to give thanks to the maple.” Beans and squashes grew wild all over America, and were rendered fruitful by cultivation among the Iroquois. In the valley of the Genesee, the first white people who came, of whom we have any definite knowledge, found large orchards, and in some places peach trees, which were of Indian cultivation.
They made a tea of the fine green boughs of the hemlock steeped in water, which I have drank when among them in preference to any other.
Their cooking utensils were very few, and housewifery occupied very little of the Indian matron’s time. She tilled the soil, and from the simple manner of tilling it, her labor was very light.
MOCCASIN.
The cradle or baby-frame, the birch canoe, and the moccasin were the prettiest articles of Indian manufacture, though since their intercourse with white people they have [[81]]added an infinite variety of boxes, bags, and baskets, which they embroider both richly and tastefully. Indeed I know not if the women of any people can excel them in fancy work. Where any part of their costume is wrought, the devices are always neat, and exhibit great skill in the blending of colors. A full Indian dress is very rich and costly, being mostly of the finest broadcloth, embroidered with beads around the borders, and with ornaments of silver around the neck and down the front. Originally they were clothed entirely in the skins of animals, but the new materials are made exactly in the old fashion. The kilt was very much like that worn by the Highlander, and is richly embroidered. The leggin was fastened above the knee, and fell loosely to the top of the moccasin, being also deeply embroidered.
There were six dances, at which it was necessary to wear a peculiar costume. The head-dress of the warriors was adorned with plumes, and his girdle, gay with many colors, was thrown gracefully over the left shoulder, tied under the right arm at the waist, and hung in fringes to the knee.
The style of beauty of the Indian women is so different from that of the Roman and Grecian, Circassian and Saxon, that at first one would scarcely pronounce any of them beautiful. But, as a people, I am inclined to think them better looking than the Saxon, though there are none among them so beautiful as some among us.
Miss Bremer describes one whom she met on the banks of the Mississippi, who might be the type of as large a class among Indian women, as a city belle is, in the throng in which she moves. She says of her—“She was so brilliant, and of such unusual beauty, that she literally seemed to light up the whole room as she entered. Her shoulders were broad and round, and her carriage [[82]]drooping, as is usual with Indian women, who are early accustomed to carry burdens on their backs; but the beauty of the countenance was so extraordinary, that I cannot but think that if such a face were to be seen in one of the drawing-rooms of the fashionable world, it would there be regarded as the type of a beauty hitherto unknown. It was the wild beauty of the forest, at the same time melancholy and splendid. The bashful glow in those large, magnificent eyes, shaded by unusually long, dark eye-lashes, cannot be described, nor yet the glance, nor the splendid light of the smile, which at times lit up the countenance like a flash, showing the loveliest white teeth. She was quite young, and had been married two years to a brave young warrior, who, I was told, was so fond of her, that he would not allow her to carry burdens, but always got a horse for her when she went to the town. Her name was Feather Cloud.”
There is not the variety among Indian beauties that exists among white people. We have all shades, from the lightest blonde to the darkest brunette; but the shade is nearly the same upon every forest maiden’s face. The hair is raven black, the cheeks are full, and the eye like jet. But there is still opportunity for Nature to show her skill; though there may be few so splendidly beautiful as Feather Cloud, there are few who may not be called comely; and I have seen many who might vie with the blondes and brunettes of any drawing-room. [[83]]
CHAPTER V.
LOVE, MUSIC, AND POETRY.
It has been the conclusion of historians generally, and of travellers and students almost universally, that the North American Indians were entirely destitute of la belle passion—that “of the marvellous passion which originates in a higher development of the powers of the human heart, and is founded upon a cultivation of the affections between the sexes, they were entirely ignorant.” I shall not attempt to refute learned historians or philosophers, neither will I assert a different opinion. Yet there are many among the wise and thinking who say this cannot be.
In reading very extensively, and conversing with those who have lived many years a forest life, I have learned many things which might be cited to prove a more pleasant theory, but they may possibly be only exceptions to the rule, and I shall therefore merely relate the facts, leaving my readers to theorize for themselves.
In the contents of this chapter I have not confined myself to the Iroquois, but roamed among all the northern nations, and have by no means appropriated all that has been written and said on the subject.
It is the impression among all people this side of the Mediterranean, that the women of Turkey all live in harems; but our Minister, who has just returned from a [[84]]four years’ sojourn in Constantinople, says he has never found in that city a respectable Turk who had more than one wife! This is the law of God, and to disobey it wars against nature. Among the Indians, polygamy was sometimes practised, but was by no means common, and was ever disgraceful. It is insisted, too, by their aged people, that before they were corrupted by their conquerors, there was scarcely any thing among them which Christian principle would condemn as vice.
To excel in oratory certainly requires a very superior development, and in this no people excelled the Iroquois. Love, in all its purity, dwells very little among even Christian people, and something far worse than polygamy prevails in the most cultivated circles among civilized nations.
There is not so much of nature’s nobility among the peasantry of Europe as among the forest Indians; yet their capability of love and the domestic affections is not disputed, and it is this alone which renders life endurable; were it not for this they would be desperadoes whom all the fetters of despotism could not trammel or subdue. But they are dwellers in one place, whilst the Indian is a rover, quite independent of home and domestic comfort.
The manner in which marriages were contracted, made it impossible that there should be courtships or long romantic love affairs among the children of the wilderness, and their habits of life made social intercourse almost impossible. Young men and maidens, had very little opportunity to become acquainted, and if there sprang up in their bosoms a mutual attachment, it could not be cultivated without the consent of the friends of both parties, and so accustomed were they to obedience, that the thought of defying those who had authority over them was [[85]]seldom or never indulged. I have smiled, as I have heard an Indian youth speak of the opportunities he had enjoyed for being married, in the same way as young women make this boast among us. And this may be done without compromising the delicacy of those alluded to, as it is not supposed that the parties most concerned know any thing of the matter.
The grandmothers, if living, if not the mothers, and when there are no mothers, the aunts, or nearest relatives, make the propositions. If it is considered desirable that a son, or daughter, marry the son or daughter in a neighboring lodge, a present of some kind is left at the door in a basket. This signifies to all within that a marriage negotiation is contemplated. If it is agreeable, the basket is brought in, and its contents being accepted, it is returned with a present which indicates that the way is open to further negotiation. If the proposal is rejected, the basket is left standing without the door, and she who brought it comes after there has been time for deliberation and takes it home. This is a decided refusal. If it is returned replenished, she sends another present of a different kind, and soon afterwards enters herself and consults with the matrons of the family with whom she seeks an alliance, and if all are pleased that it should take place, each family informs the son and daughter, for the first time, of the pending negotiation. Then, if there is no objection, presents are again exchanged, and there is another meeting of the matrons at which the children are present. Very serious advice is given them concerning their deportment, and the duties of husbands and wives, and then the seat is prepared in the home of the bride and bridegroom, which is in future to be exclusively theirs, and in the presence of all they repair to it, and are henceforth husband and wife. Their wedding tour is a [[86]]hunting excursion, or rather this was the custom of the olden time; now there is usually a feast, and there is also an acre of land set apart by the bride’s friends as her marriage portion. The father takes no interest in the matter, and is merely informed of the marriage when it is consummated. The children are of the tribe of the mother, as are the children’s children to the latest generation, and they are also of the same nation. If the mother is a Cayuga, the children are Cayugas; and if a Mohawk, the children are Mohawks. If the marriage proves unhappy, the parties are allowed to separate, and each is at liberty to marry again. But the mother has the sole right to the disposal of the children. She keeps them all if she chooses, and to their father they are ever mere strangers.
In regard to property, too, the wife retains whatever belonged to her before marriage, distinct from her husband, and can dispose of it as she pleases without his consent, and if she separates from him, takes it with her, and at her death, either before or after separation, her children inherit all she possessed.
A white man was once remonstrating with an Indian upon allowing the matrimonial bond to be so lightly broken, when the Indian replied: “You marry squaw, she know you always keep her, so she scold, scold, scold, and not cook your venison. I marry squaw, and she know I leave her if she not good. So she not scold, but cook my venison, and always pleasant, we live long together.”
There were few penalties for any species of crime. To call a thing bad was usually sufficient in Indian communities to deter from all that they considered evil. That which we denounce as criminal, was not called so by them.
The staid and burly Englishman, never mingled with [[87]]the Indians in a way to gain their confidence or learn their true character. Their way of life was repulsive to him, but the Frenchman could become a hunter and roam for years in the forests, or live in a wigwam, and conform in all things to Indian customs with the same nonchalance as he could walk upon tapestry and recline upon divans. This is the reason we usually have so much more pleasing pictures of Indian life from French than English traders. Englishmen would not be very likely to become the confidants of hunters or warriors, or to have an opportunity to listen to the love songs of Indian maidens.
It is certainly wonderful that a people who knew nothing of physiology, and had no learned treatises upon physical degeneracy, should have so thoroughly provided against deterioration by laws concerning intermarriage. Their wigwams were built for the convenience of several families. A lodge was constructed, and when it became necessary, additions were made till it became one or two hundred feet in length, and the abode of a little multitude, but all who occupied it were within the degrees of consanguinity which forbade marriage—they were brothers and sisters, and treated each other as such. But disputing and wrangling form no part of the nurseries of an Indian cabin. It is quite amazing how many will live together in harmony and love.
But I have heard of several instances of suicide for disappointed affection which would compare well in recklessness and desperation with any recorded in French or Italian novels. It sometimes happened that the husband or wife whom the friends chose, proved so unsuitable that the nuptial tie was broken almost as soon as formed. And when this happened I believe the parties were left the second time to select for themselves. It sometimes, too, became impossible for the friends to force upon young [[88]]people a yoke which they felt they could never bear. And often, as among the aristocratic circles of court society, it was worn a little while and then thrown off by one, leaving the other disconsolate and wretched. It, of course, most frequently happens that the wife is the deserted one.
Mrs. Hemans has immortalized the heart-broken one who perished in the Falls of St. Anthony some years ago, as related by a missionary. Her name was Ampatd Sapa.
“The husband was a successful hunter, and they lived happily together many years, and had two children, who played around their fire, and whom they were glad to call their children. Many families by degrees settled around them, and built wigwams near theirs. Wishing to become more closely connected with them, they represented to the hunter that he ought to have several wives, as by that means he would become of more importance, and might before long be elected chief of the tribe.”
He was well pleased with this counsel, and privately took a new wife; but, in order to bring her into his wigwam without displeasing his first wife, the mother of his children, he said to her:
“Thou knowest that I can never love any other woman as tenderly as I love thee: but I have seen that the labor of taking care of me and the children is too great for thee, and I have therefore determined to take another wife, who shall be thy servant; but thou shalt be the principal one in the dwelling.”
The wife was very much distressed when she heard these words. She prayed him to reflect on their former affection—their happiness during many years—their children. She besought him not to bring this second wife into their dwelling.
In vain. The next evening the husband brought the new wife into his wigwam. [[89]]
“In the early dawn of the following morning a death song was heard on the Mississippi. A young Indian woman sat in a little canoe with her two small children, and rowed it out into the river in the direction of the falls. It was Ampatd Sapa. She sang in lamenting tones the sorrow of her heart, of her husband’s infidelity, and her determination to die. Her friends heard the song, and saw her intention, but too late to prevent it.
“Her voice was soon silenced in the roar of the fall. The boat paused for a moment on the brink of the precipice, and the next was carried over it, and vanished in the foaming deep.”
The Indians still believe that in the early dawn may be heard the lamenting song, deploring the infidelity of the husband; and they fancy that at times may be seen the mother, with the children clasped to her breast, in the misty shapes which arise from the fall around the Spirit Island.
“Roll on; my warrior’s eye hath looked upon another’s face,
And mine hath faded from his soul, as fades a moonbeam’s trace;
My shadow comes not o’er his path, my whisper to his dream,
He flings away the broken reed; roll swifter yet, thou stream!
The voice that spoke of other days is hushed within his breast;
But mine its lonely music haunts, and will not let me rest.
It sings a low and mournful song of gladness that is gone;
I cannot live without that light—Father of Waves, roll on!
Will he not miss the bounding step, that met him from the chase?
The heart of love that made his home an ever sunny place?
The hand that spread the hunter’s board, and decked his couch of yore?
He will not!—roll, dark, foaming stream, on to the better shore!
And there, my babe! though born, like me, for woman’s weary lot;
Smile! to that wasting of the heart; my own I leave thee not.
Some gentle wind must whisper there, whose breath must waft away,
The burden of the heavy night, the sadness of the day.”
[[90]]
The words are another’s, but the sentiment is the same as uttered by the deserted one, and the same as uttered by a deserted one on the banks of Lake Erie. “I cannot live longer,” said she, and swallowed the poisoned draught her own hands had mixed.
Not many specimens of Indian poetry have been preserved, yet they were ever singing.
They had a great variety of tunes, and are said to have had a good perception of time. They had not the regular intervals of tones and semitones, but a thousand different sounds recurring at as many irregular intervals. The music and the words of their songs were often impromptu, but the war-songs were in regular verses, and sung as they danced.
The voice of the Indian is very rich and capable of high cultivation; and as they become Christianized, this part of public worship is their great delight. During the August of 1790 an Italian nobleman, Count Adriana, visited Mr. Kirkland, at his mission station in Oneida, and was particularly charmed with the musical powers of the Indians, saying—“The melody of their music, and the softness and richness of their voices, he thought were equal to any he ever heard in Italy!”
During the French war a party of Indians came from the far north-west to visit Quebec. On their way they stopped at the Moravian Mission, on the banks of Lake Superior, and there a young Algonquin fell in love with a Chippewa maiden, who as ardently returned his passion. As she sailed away in her light canoe she uttered her love and sadness in the following wild strain:—
“I shall go with you my sweet heart, my Algonquin.”
“Alas,” I replied, “my native country is far, far away—my sweet heart, my Algonquin.” [[91]]
When I looked back again, where we parted, he was still looking after me, my sweet heart, my Algonquin,
He was still standing on a fallen tree, that had fallen in the water, my sweet heart, my Algonquin.
Alas, when I think of him, when I think of him, it is when I think of him—my Algonquin.
The following is another strain almost as simple, but less wild and sad:—
“I looked across the water,
I bent o’er it and listened,
I thought it was my lover,
My true love’s paddle glistened.
Joyous thus his light canoe, would the silver ripples wake,
But no, it is the loon alone, the loon upon the lake;
Ah me! it is the loon alone, the loon upon the lake.
“I see the fallen maple,
Where he stood his red scarf waving,
Though waters nearly bury
Boughs they then were merely laving,
I heard his last farewell, as it echoed from the lake,
But no, it is the loon alone, the loon upon the lake;
Ah me! it is the loon alone, the loon upon the lake.”
This is a literal translation, but there is the true spirit of the love-lorn maiden, and a high development of the poetic sentiment. There has been only now and then a wanderer among the forests, who could appreciate or discern the beautiful, though there have been poems, and novels in abundance concerning wild forest life, by those who wrote the wanderings of their imagination and their fancy. The bright picture has been too bright, and the dark picture too dark.
In the war songs of the Indian, there is never allusion to blood and carnage; and revenge is not made prominent among the natives for pursuing the enemy. Bold and [[92]]daring deeds are incited as worthy of imitation, and fortitude and heroism are exalted as the loftiest virtues. They had characteristics, generated by their peculiar life, but there is nothing about them to prevent their becoming like unto others. White men have lived among them and learned to prefer the hunter’s life. Indians have learned to prefer the habits of civilization, and shown themselves capable of education and refinement equal to any attained by any nation.
When children, they have the same joyous nature, the same quick perceptions, and exhibit the same varieties of character.
“As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined,”
is as true of them as of pale-faced children.
The following lines are a translation of a song heard among a troop of Chippewa children as they were playing at twilight around their dwellings, and the air was filled with myriads of fire-flies, which they were trying to catch. I have seen few prettier things among the children’s songs of any people.
“Fire-fly, fire-fly, bright little thing,
Light me to bed, and my song I will sing;
Give me your light, as you fly o’er my head,
That I may merrily go to my bed;
Give me your light o’er the grass as you creep,
That I may joyfully go to my sleep;
Come little fire-fly—Come little beast—
Come! and I’ll make you to-morrow a feast.
Come, little candle, that flies as I sing,
Bright little fairy bug,—night’s little king;
Come, and I’ll dance as you guide me along,
Come, and I’ll pay you my bug with a song.”
In their legends there is often allusion to falling in [[93]]love, in the way the same event takes place among other people. The following is obtained from a very authentic source, and certainly appears very natural:—