208 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ktii. ann.19 



towns were also known as jjeacu towns-, from their prominenre in peace cereinnnials 

 and treaty making. Upon this Adair says: " In almost every Indian nation there 

 are several pcaccnhle toinns, which are called 'old beloved, ancient, holy, or white 

 towns.' They seem to have been formerly towns of refuge, for it is not in the 

 memory of their oldest people that ever human blood was shed in them, although 

 they often force persons from thence and put them to death elsewhere." — .\dair, 

 American Indians, 159. A closely parallel institution seems to have existed among 

 the Seneca. "The Seneca nation, ever the largest, and guarding the western door 

 of the 'long house,' which was threatened alike from the north, west, and south, 

 had traditions peculiarly their own, besides those common to the otlier members of 

 the confederacy. The stronghold or fort, Gau-stra-yea, on the mountain ridge, four 

 miles east of Lewiston, had a peculiar character as the residence of a virgin queen 

 known as the 'Peacemaker.' When the Iroquois confederacy was first formed the 

 prime factors were mutual protection and domestic peace, and this fort was designed 

 to afford comfort and relieve the distress incident to war. It w-as a true ' city of 

 refuge,' to which fugitives from battle, whate\'er their nationality, might flee for 

 safety and find generous entertainment. Curtains of deerskin separated pursuer and 

 pursued while they were being lodged and fed. At parting, the curtains were with- 

 drawn, and the hostile parties, having shared the hospitality of the queen, could 

 neither renew hostility or pursuit without the queen's consent. According to tra- 

 dition, no virgin had for many generations been counted worthy to fill the place or 

 possessed the genius and gifts to honor the position. In 1878 the Tonawanda band 

 proposed to revive the office and conferred upon Caroline Parker the title." — Car- 

 rington, in Six Nations of New York, Extra Bulletin Eleventh Census, p. 73, 1892. 



(21) Scalping by whites (p. 53) : To the student, aware how easily the civilized 

 man reverts to his original savagery when brought in close contact with its condi- 

 tions, it will be no surprise to learn that every barbarous practice of Indian warfare 

 was (juickly adopted by the w'hite pioneer and soldier and frequently legalized and 

 encouraged by local authority. Scalping, while the most common, was probably 

 the least savage and cruel of them all, being usually performed after the victim was 

 already dead, with the primary purpose of securing a trophy of the victory. The 

 tortures, mutilations, and nameless deviltries inflicted upon Indians by their white 

 conquerors in the early days could hardly be paralleled even in civilized Europe, 

 when burning at the stake was the imnishment for holding original opinions and 

 sawing into two pieces the penalty for desertion. Actual torture of Indians by legal 

 sanction was rare within the English colonies, but mutilation was common and 

 scalping was the rule down to the end of the war of 1812, and has been practiced 

 more or less in almost every Indian war down to the latest. Captain Church, who 

 commanded in King Philip's war in 1676, states that his men received thirty shil- 

 lings a head for every Indian killed or taken, and Philip's head, after it was cut off, 

 " went at the same price." When the chief was killed one of his hands was cut off 

 and given to his Indian slayer, " to show to such gentlemen as would bestow gratui- 

 ties upon him, and accordingly he got many a penny by it." His other hand was 

 chopped off and sent to Boston for exhibition, his head was sent to Plymouth and 

 exposed upon a scaffold there for twenty years, while the rest of his l)ody was 

 quartered and the pieces left hanging upon four trees. Fifty years later Massachu- 

 setts offered a bounty of one hundred pounds for every Indian scalp, and scalj) 

 hunting thus became a regular and usually a profitable business. On one occasion a 

 certain Lovewell, having recruited a company of forty men for this purpose, dis- 

 covered ten Indians lying asleep by their fire and killed the whole party.' After 

 scalping them they stretched the scalps upon hoops and marched thus into Boston, 

 where the scalps were paraded and the bounty of one thousand pounds paid for 

 them. By a few other scalps sold from time to time at the regular market rate, 

 Lovewell was gradually ai-quiring a competency when in ilay, 1725, his company 



