THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FIVE NATIONS 153 



tree. There are also references to the tree that was uprooted " to 

 afford a cavity in which to bury all weapons of war," the tree being ^^^ 

 replanted as a memorial. 



In the Iroquoian myth, whether Cherokee, Huron, Wyandot, 

 Seneca or Mohawk, the " tree of the upper world " is mentioned, 

 though the character of the tree differs according to the tribe and 

 sometimes according to the myth-teller. 



Before the formation of the lower or earth world the Wyandot 

 tell of the upper or sky world and of the " big chief " whose daugh- 

 ter became strangely ill.^ The chief instructs his daughter to " dig 

 up the wild apple tree ; what will cure her she can pluck from among 

 its roots." David Boyle ^ wondered why the apple tree was called 

 " wild " but that the narrator meant wild-apple and not wild apple 

 is shown by the fact that in some versions the Seneca call the tree 

 the crab-apple. The native apple tree with its small fruit was in- 

 tended by the Indian myth-teller, who knew also of the cultivated 

 apple and took the simplest way to differentiate the two. 



With the Seneca this tree is described more fully. In manu- 

 script left by Mrs Asher Wright, the aged missionary to the Seneca, 

 I find the cosmologic myth as related to her by Esquire Johnson, a 

 Seneca, in 1870. Mrs Wright and her husband understood the 

 Seneca language perfectly and published a mission magazine in that 

 tongue as early as 1838. Her translation of Johnson's myth should 

 therefore be considered authentic. She wrote : 



" There was a vast expanse of water. . . . Above it was the 

 great blue arch of air but no signs of anything solid. ... In the 

 clear sky was an unseen floating island sufficiently firm to allow 

 trees to grow upon it, and there were men-beings there. There was 

 one great chief who gave the law to all the Ongweh or beings on the 

 island. In the center of the island there grew a tree so tall that no 

 one of the beings who lived there could see the top. On its branches 

 flowers and fruit hung all the year round. The beings who lived on 

 the island used to come to the tree and eat the fruit and smell the 

 sweet perfume of the flowers. On one occasion the chief desired 

 that the tree be pulled up. The great chief was called to look at the 

 great pit which was to be seen where the tree had stood." 



The story continues with the usual description of how the sky- 

 mother was pushed into the hole in the sky and fell upon the wings 

 of the waterfowl who placed her on the turtle's back. After this 

 mention of the celestial tree in the same manuscript is the story of 



2 Connelley, W. E., Wyandot Folk Lore. Topeka, 1889. 



2 Boyle, The Iroquois, in Archeological Report of Ontario for 1905, p. 147. 



