It was a striking peculiarity of the ancient religious system of the
Iroquois that, once a year, the priesthood supplied the people with
sacred fire. For this purpose, a set time was announced for the ruling
priest’s visit. The entire village was apprized of this visit, and
the master of each lodge was expected to be prepared for this annual
rite. Preliminary to the visit, his lodge fire was carefully put out
and ashes scattered about it, as a symbolic sign of desolation and
want. Deprived of this element, they were also deprived of its symbolic
influence, the sustaining aid and countenance of the supreme power,
whose image they recognized in the sun.
It was to relieve this want, and excite hope and animation in breasts
which had throbbed with dread, that the priest visited the lodge.
Exhibiting the insignia of the sacerdotal office, he proceeded to
invoke the Master of Life in their behalf, and ended his mission by
striking fire from the flint, or from percussion, and lighting anew
the domestic fire. The lodge was then swept and garnished anew, and a
feast succeeded.
This sacred service annually performed, had the effect to fix and
increase the reverence of the people for the priestly office. It acted
as a renewal of their ecclesiastical fealty; and the consequence was,
that the institution of the priesthood among these cantons was deeply
and firmly seated. Whether this rite had any connection with the
period of the solstices, or with the commencement of the lunar year,
is not known, but is highly probable. That men living in the open air,
who are regardful of the celestial phenomena, should not have noted
the equinoxes, is not probable. They must have necessarily known the
equinoxes by the observation of capes and mountains, which cast their
shadows from points and describe angles so very diverse at the periods
of the sun’s greatest recession, or return. Yet we know not that the
time of such extreme withdrawal and return marked and completed the
circle of the year. Their year was, in all the Algonquin tribes, a
lunar year. It consisted of thirteen moons, each of which is distinctly
named. Thirteen moons of 28 days each, counting from visible phase to
phase, make a year of 364 days, which is the greatest astronomical
accuracy reached by the North American tribes.
That the close of the lunar series should have been the period of
putting out the fire, and the beginning of the next, the time of
relumination, from new fire, is so consonant to analogy in the tropical
tribes, as to be probable.
The rite itself offers a striking coincidence, with that solemn
performance at the close of each year, by the Aztec priests, in the
valley of Mexico, and may not unreasonably be supposed to denote a
common origin for the belief. The northern tribes had, however, dropped
from the ritual, if it ever was in it, that of their remote ancestors,
the horrid rite so revolting in the Aztec annals, of _human sacrifice_.
For although prisoners were burned at the stake, this was not an act
of the priesthood. It was a purely popular effervescence of revenge
for losses of friends in war, or some other acts done by the enemy.
Such sacrifices appeased the popular cry—all classes, young and old,
rejoiced in them. They were looked on alone as an evidence of their
nation’s power; and by it the warriors also shewed their regard for
the relations of the bereaved. The widow of the warrior dried her
tears. The children rejoiced—they hardly knew why—it was the triumph
of the nation. And they were thus educated to regard the public burning
of prisoners as a proper and glorious deed. Women, indeed, rejoiced in
it apparently more than men. It seemed a solace for the loss of their
progeny. And all authors agree in attributing to the older females the
most extravagant and repulsive acts of participation and rejoicing in
these warlike rites.
[_e._] Witchcraft.
The belief in witchcraft prevailed extensively among the North American
tribes. It is known that even in modern times, it was one of the
principal means used by the Shawnee prophet to rid himself of his
opponents, and that the venerable Shawnee chief Tarhe and others were
sacrificed to this diabolical spirit.
Among the Iroquois the belief was universal, and its effects upon their
prosperity and population, if tradition is to be credited, were at
times appalling. The theory of the popular belief, as it existed in
the several cantons, was this. The witches and wizzards constituted a
secret association, which met at night to consult on mischief, and each
was bound to inviolable secrecy. They say this fraternity first arose
among the Nanticokes. A witch or wizzard had power to turn into a fox
or wolf, and run very swift, emitting flashes of light. They could also
transform themselves into a turkey or big owl, and fly very fast. If
detected, or hotly pursued, they could change into a stone or rotten
log. They sought carefully to procure the poison of snakes or poisonous
roots, to effect their purposes. They could blow hairs or worms into a
person. [D.]
While in Onondaga, James Gould, one of the original settlers on the
Military Tract, told me that he had been intimate with Webster, the
naturalized Onondaga, who told him many things respecting the ancient
laws and customs of this people. Amongst them there was a curious
reminiscence on the subject of witchcraft. Webster had heard this from
an aged Onondaga, whom he conversed with during a visit which he once
made to Canada. This Onondaga said that he had formerly lived near the
old church on the Kasonda creek, near Jamesville, where there was in
old times a populous Indian village. One evening, he said, whilst he
lived there, he stepped out of his lodge, and immediately sank in the
earth, and found himself in a large room, surrounded by three hundred
witches and wizzards. Next morning he went to the council and told the
chiefs of this extraordinary occurrence. They asked him whether he
could not identify the persons. He said he could. They then accompanied
him on a visit to all the lodges, where he pointed out _this_ and
_that_ one, who were marked for execution. Before this inquiry was
ended, a very large number of persons of both sexes were killed. He
said ——[55] hundred.
[55] Having doubts, I omit to fill this blank.
Another tradition says that about fifty persons were burned to death at
the Onondaga castle for witches. [D.]
The delusion prevailed among all the cantons. The last persons executed
for witchcraft among the Oneidas, suffered about forty years ago.
They were two females. The executioner was the notorious Hon Yost of
revolutionary memory. He entered the lodge, according to a prior decree
of the Council, and struck them down with a tomahawk. One was found in
the lodge; the other suffered near the lodge door. [B.]
[_f._] Wife’s Right to Property.
Marriage, among the Iroquois, appears to be a verbal contract between
the parties, which does not affect the rights of property. Goods,
personal effects, or valuables of any kind, personal or real, which
were the wife’s before, remain so after marriage. Should any of these
be used by the husband, he is bound to restore the property or its
worth, in the event of separation. It is not uncommon at present to
find a husband indebted to a wife for moneys loaned of her, derived
from payments or property, which she owned, and still owns, in her own
right; and it is a cause of union in some cases where, without this
obligation, a separation would probably ensue.
Marriage is therefore a personal agreement, requiring neither civil nor
ecclesiastical sanction, but not a union of the rights of property.
Descent being counted by the female may be either an original cause or
effect of this unique law.