“I name the tree the Tree of the Great Long Leaves. Under the shade of this Tree of Peace we spread the soft feathery down of the globe thistle, there beneath the spreading branches of the Tree of Peace.”
In the second “law” of the code the four roots of the “tree” are described and the law-giver says, “If any individual or any nation outside the Five Nations shall obey the laws of the Great Peace and make known their disposition to the Lords of the Confederacy, they may trace the Roots to the Tree and if their minds are clean and obedient—they shall be welcome to take shelter beneath the Tree of the Long Leaves.
“We place in the top of the Tree of the Long Leaves an Eagle who is able to see afar;—he will warn the people.”
In another place is the following: “I Dekānăwī´dă, and the union lords now uproot the tallest pine tree and into the cavity thereby made we cast all weapons of war. Into the depths of the earth, down into the deep under-earth currents of water flowing to unknown regions we cast all the weapons of strife. We bury them from sight and we plant again the tree. Thus shall the Great Peace, Kayĕ’´narhe‘kowa, be established.”
These laws and figures of speech are very evidently those which the Iroquois speakers had in mind when addressing “peace councils” with the whites.
Symbolic trees appear not only in Iroquois history, mythology and folk beliefs but also in their decorative art. The numerous decorative forms of trees embroidered in moose hair and porcupine quills by the eastern Algonquins and by the Huron and the Iroquois appear to be attempts to represent the world-tree and the celestial tree, in some cases with its “all manner of fruits and flowers.” Many, if not most, of the modern descendants of the old-time Indian, who copy these old designs have forgotten their meanings and some have even invented new explanations. A few of the more conservative, however, remember even yet the true meaning of their designs and from such much of interest has been learned.
Fig. 3.—Portion of legging strip. The inward curving design at the top sometimes symbolizes sleep or death. (Specimens collected for the New York State Museum by M. R. Harrington.)
In examining examples of Iroquois decorative art one is immediately impressed with the repeated use of a pattern consisting of a semi-circle resting upon two parallel horizontal lines having at the top two divergent curved lines each springing from the same point and curving outward, like the end of a split dandelion stalk, (See fig. 4b.) This design or symbol, with the Iroquois represents the celestial tree growing from the top of the sky, or more properly, from the bottom of the “above-sky world” (gä´oñyă’gĕ‘´). The two parallel lines represent the earth. This symbol is found with the same meaning among the Delaware. In the Walum Olum[[90]] parallel semi-circles represent the sky-dome, though single semi-circles appear. Two parallel horizontal lines, likewise, represent the earth. (See fig. I, a.)
