on of the western nations, had
confounded King Alfred with King Arthur, and both with Odin, he would not
have made a more preposterous confusion of names and characters than that
which has hitherto disguised the genuine personality of the great
Onondaga reformer.

About the main events of his history, and about his character and
purposes, there can be no reasonable doubt. We have the wampum belts
which he handled, and whose simple hieroglyphics preserve the memory of
the public acts in which he took part. We have, also, in the Iroquois
"Book of Rites," a still more clear and convincing testimony to the
character both of the legislator and of the people for whom his
institutions were designed. This book, sometimes called the "Book of the
Condoling Council," might properly enough be styled an Iroquois Veda. It
comprises the speeches, songs and other ceremonies, which, from the
earliest period of the confederacy, have composed the proceedings of
their council when a deceased chief is lamented and his successor is
installed in office. The fundamental laws of the league, a list of their
ancient towns, and the names of the chiefs who constituted their first
council, chanted in a kind of litany, are also comprised in the
collection. The contents, after being preserved in memory, like the
Vedas, for many generations, were written down by desire of the chiefs,
when their language was first reduced to writing; and the book is
therefore more than a century old. Its language, archaic when written,
is now partly obsolete, and is fully understood by only a few of the
oldest chiefs. It is a genuine Indian composition, and must be accepted
as disclosing the true character of its authors. The result is
remarkable enough. Instead of a race of rude and ferocious warriors, we
find in this book a kindly and affectionate people, full of sympathy for
their friends in distress, considerate to their women, tender to their
children, anxious for peace, and imbued with a profound reverence for
their constitution and its authors. We become conscious of the fact that
the aspect in which these Indians have presented themselves to the
outside world has been in a large measure deceptive and factitious. The
ferocity, craft, and cruelty, which have been deemed their leading
traits, have been merely the natural accompaniments of wars of
self-preservation, and no more indicated their genuine character than the
war-paint, plume, and tomahawk of