10 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 



prescribed by time-honored customs ; and, in the 

 fiercest heat of controversy, the assembly main- 

 tained its self-control. 



But the main stay of Iroquois polity was the 

 system of totemshij:). It was this which gave the 

 structure its elastic strength ; and but for this, a 

 mere confederacy of jealous and warlike tribes 

 must soon have been rent asunder by shocks from 

 without or discord from within, xit some early 

 period, the Iroquois probably formed an individual 

 nation ; for the whole people, irrespective of their 

 separation into tribes, consisted of eight totemic 

 clans ; and the members of each clan, to what 

 nation soever they belonged, were mutually bound 

 to one another by those close ties of fraternity 

 which mark this singular institution. Thus the 

 five nations of the confederacy were laced together 

 by an eight-fold band ; and to this hour their slen- 

 der remnants cling to one another with invincible 

 tenacity. 



It was no small security to the liberties of the 

 Iroquois — liberties w^hich they valued beyond any 



silence, smoking their pipes. The speaker uttered his words in a singing 

 tone, always rising a few notes at the close of each sentence. Whatever 

 was pleasing to the council was confirmed b}'- all with the word Nee, or 

 Yes. And, at the end of each speech, the whole company joined in ap- 

 plauding the speaker by calling Hoho. At noon, two men entered bearing 

 a large kettle filled with meat, upon a pole across their shoulders, which 

 was first presented to the guests. A large wooden ladle, as broad and 

 deep as a common bowl, hung with a hook to the side of the kettle, with 

 which every one might at once help himself to as much as he could eat. 

 When the guests had eaten their fill, they begged the counsellors to do 

 the same. The whole was conducted in a very decent and quiet manner. 

 Indeed, now and then, one or the other would lie flat upon his back to rest 

 himself, and sometimes they would stop, joke, and laugh heartily." — 

 Loskiel, Hist. Morav. Miss. 138. 



