Edited by HORATIO HALE, Esq.
1 vol., 8vo. Price, paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50.
The "BOOK OF RITES" is a native composition, which was preserved orally for centuries, and was written down about a century ago. It gives the speeches, songs and ceremonies which were rehearsed when a chief died and his successor was appointed. The fundamental laws of the League, a list of their ancient towns, and the names of the chiefs who composed their first council, are also comprised in the work. It may be said to carry the authentic history of Northern America back to a period fifty years earlier than the era of Columbus. The introductory essay treats of the ethnology and history of the Huron-Iroquois League and its founders, the origin of the Book of Rites, the composition of the Federal Council, the clan system, the laws of the League, and the Iroquois character, public policy, and language.
NOTICES OF THE PRESS AND OF EMINENT WRITERS.
"This work may be said to open a field of Indian research new to ethnologists. … These precious relics of antiquity are concise in their wording, and full of meaning. … The additions made by Mr. Hall are almost as valuable as the texts themselves."—The Nation New York, September 13, 1883.
"The reputation of the author, added to this fascinating title, will insure its favorable reception, not only by ethnologists, but also, the reading public. … A remarkable discovery, and indisputably of great ethnological value. … A book which is as suggestive as this must bear good fruit."—Science, August 31,1883.
"The work contains much new material of permanent interest and value to the historical scholar and the scientist. … "—The Magazine of American History, September, 1883.
"In this Book of Rites we have poetry, law, history, tradition and genealogy, interesting and valuable for many reasons…."—Good Literature, August 18, 1883.
"The Book of Rites is edited by the eminent philologist, Mr. Horatio Hale, who has done so much to elucidate the whole subject of Indian ethnography and migrations, with the argument derived from language in connection with established tradition; and especially to disentangle Iroquois history from its complications with the legends of their mythology."—Auburn Daily Advertiser, July 21, 1883.
"The book is one of great ethnological value, in the light it casts on the political and social life, as well as the character and capacity, of the people with whom it originated."—Popular Science Monthly, November 1883.