20 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 



was flung to the dogs, and, with clamorous shouts 

 and hootmgs, the murderers sought to drive away 

 the spirit of their victim.^ 



The Iroquois reckoned these barbarities among 

 their most exquisite enjoyments ; and yet they had 

 other sources of pleasure, which made up in fre- 

 quency and in innocence what they lacked in 

 intensity. Each passing season had its feasts and 

 dances, often mingling religion with social pastime. 

 The young had their frolics and merry-makings ; 

 and the old had their no less frequent councils, 

 where conversation and laughter alternated with 

 grave deliberations for the public weal. There 

 were also stated periods marked by the recurrence 

 of momentous ceremonies, in which the whole 

 community took part — the mystic sacrifice of the 

 dogs, the orgies of the dream feast, and the loath- 

 some festival of the exhumation of the dead. Yet 

 in the intervals of war and hunting, these resour- 

 ces would often fail ; and, while the women were 

 toiling in the cornfields, the lazy warriors beguiled 



1 "Being at this place the 17 of June, there came fifty prisoners from 

 the south-westward. They were of two nations, some whereof have few 

 guns ; the other none at all. One nation is about ten days' journey from 

 any Christians, and trade onely with one greatt house, nott farr from the 

 sea, and the other trade onely, as they say, with a black people. This day 

 of them was burnt two women, and a man and a child killed with a stone. 

 Att night we heard a great noyse as if y« houses had all fallen, butt itt 

 was only y^ inhabitants driving away y® ghosts of y« murthered. 



" The 18*^ going to Canagorah, that day there were most cruelly 

 burnt four men, four women and one boy. The cruelty lasted aboutt 

 seven hours. When they were almost dead letting them loose to the 

 mercy of y® boys, and taking the hearts of such as were dead to feast on." 

 — Greenhalgh, Journal, 1677. 



