LEAGUE OF IROQUOIS HEWITT. 537 



lying south of the great lake. He left them in a ' l white canoe," 

 which perhaps was a canoe of white birch, which later tradition has 

 carelessly confounded with the ice canoe (= ice block) in which the 

 Iroquoian myth of the Beginnings says the Winter God goes from 

 place to place and which by further corruption of the misconception 

 in modern literature has become a " flint " or " stone " canoe. 



Tradition ranks Deganawida with the demigods, because of the 

 masterful orenda or magic power with which, it was alleged, he 

 tirelessly overcame the obstacles and difficulties of his great task; 

 because of the astuteness and the statesmanship he displayed in nego- 

 tiation ; and lastly, because of the courage and wisdom he showed in 

 patiently directing the work of framing the laws and elucidating the 

 fundamental principles on which they and the entire structure of the 

 Iroquois league or confederation must rest, if these were to endure to 

 secure the future welfare of their posterity. He was a prophet and 

 statesman and lawmaker of the Stone Age of North America. Tradi- 

 tion ascribes his lineage to no tribe, lest his personality be limited 

 thereby. 



The traditions concerning the person who has become known as 

 Hiawatha on close examination are found to describe two very dif- 

 ferent personages. 



In one tradition Hiawatha when first seen by Deganawida was a 

 cannibal* and was actually engaged in bringing the carcass of a 

 human being into his lodge, which he quickly proceeded to quarter 

 and cook in a pot of water. He had been out hunting for human 

 beings, and meeting this one had killed him for his larder. 



Deganawida had previously heard of his cannibalistic habits 

 from Djigonsasen, the chief tainess of the Xeutral nation (or tribe), 

 who was the first person to understand and to accept the radical pro- 

 gram of Deganawida for stopping the shedding of human blood by 

 violence and for the establishment of peace and equity and righteous- 

 ness and power. 



Unseen by Hiawatha, Deganawida, the tradition says, mounting to 

 the top of the lodge watched Hiawatha at work; peering through the 

 smoke hole from a point just over him, Deganawida saw what was 

 being done by Hiawatha and, tradition says, caused him by mental 

 •suggestion to realize the horrible enormity of what he was then 

 doing ; so he mistook the face of Deganawida, reflected in the pot, for 

 his own, and being struck with the great beauty of that face he con- 

 trasted it with the character of the work in which he was then 

 engaged and exclaimed, tradition says : " That face and this kind of 

 business do not agree " ; and he then and there resolved to give up 

 cannibalism for all time. He quickly arose and carried the pot out 

 of the lodge and cast its contents away at some distance from the 

 lodge. 



