﻿NO. 7 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I926 239 



ears and the throat with them, in such manner that the environing 

 world of persons and things are no longer ol)jects of sense ; and the 

 vitality becomes so reduced in time that the suiferer may well be 

 regarded as moribund. To redeem a grief-tormented sufferer from 

 such a state of collapse is the set task of the Requickening Address. 



About the year 1570 of the Christian Era, five linguistically cognate 

 Iroquois tribes, occupying at that time chiefly the central and the 

 eastern portions of the present State of New York, united in establish- 

 ing the historically well-known League or Confederation of the Iro- 

 quois for the avowed purpose of securing Health and Peace, Justice 

 and Righteousness, Order and the Force of Personality (Orenda), 

 as the bases of a beneficent Commonwealth of peoples. 



The tribes entering into this organic unity were the Mohawk, the 

 Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida, and the Cayuga. At that time these 

 tribes were also united in a more or less close compact with the noted 

 Neutral Nation of the Iroquoian linguistic stock, another federation 

 of tribes, which in the person of the famous Chieftainess, Djigonsa'sen 

 (the Wildcat) , took an active part in the conferences and the delibera- 

 tions resulting in the establishment of the League of the Five Iroquois 

 Tribes and also of the other compact with the Neutral Nation. But 

 for some reason, yet unknown, this alliance was not wrought into a 

 permanent organic institution, and so, in the structure of the Iroquois 

 League as known to us, there appears no concrete indication of this 

 former important alliance ; not even nominal recognition of the 

 Neutral Nation exists. There are, however, some essential features of 

 the structure of the Iroquois League which a uniform tradition 

 ascribes to the helpful work of this broadminded stateswoman and 

 Chieftainess of the Neutral Nation. 



Political and religious organizations of the Iroquoian peoples func- 

 tion only through the interaction of two important complementary 

 principles which are embodied in definitely organized groups of per- 

 sons. This is true of the tribal and of the federal organizations. 

 These two principles are the male and the female functions. 



The unit of the tribal organization is the clan. The smallest number 

 of clans in any tribe is three. The Mohawk and the Oneida each have 

 this number. And in either tribe the three clans are grouped in two 

 complementary units, the one representing the Male or Father Princi- 

 ple, and the other, the Female or Mother Principle. Each of these 

 units is usually called a Phratry or a Sisterhood of Clans. The nine 

 clans among the Seneca, the Onondaga and the Cayuga are, in like 

 manner, respectively grouped into two complementary units composed 



