142 NEW YORK STATE ^[USEUM 



travel were not always believed, l)iit were heard .with wonder. 

 Any one could relate his own deeds ; he kept in memory those of 

 the past. Count Zinzendorf said : " These Indians perpetuate the 

 memory of their heroes in heroic poems, which are so accurately 

 handed down orally that it is impossible for any one to boast 

 of feats which he has not performed." Above all, the marvelous 

 story-teller dwelt on the relations of man to the lower creation, 

 originating or keeping in mind those pathetic or comic tales 

 wherein men, birds and beasts meet as friends or foes ; often as 

 kindred. David Cusick recorded briefly some of the more gro- 

 tesque of these, telling of flying heads, stone giants, vampires, 

 monstrous beasts, serpents and witches, but gave only a hint of 

 the Indian tales told by the winter's fire. Welcome was the 

 story-teller everywhere, nor was his fee of tobacco ever grudged. 



There was a higher purpose when the wampum was produced 

 and its meaning revealed. That told of history, established cere- 

 monies, moral laws. Songs were to be learned that religious 

 rites might be duly observed ; other songs preserving the names, 

 deeds and virtues of their ancestors, exactly learned for condoling 

 the dead or raising new chiefs ; points of etiquette to be observed, 

 for they were a punctilious p'^ople, having precise rules for every 

 public act ; how to speak and how to dance, with many a regu- 

 lation for private life. They often looked on their white friends 

 as unpolished people, pitying them for their lack of good man- 

 ners. Sometimes they even showed them the better way. 



The Algonquins were less sedentary than the Iroquois, and 

 cultivated the soil much less. Some have made the Iroquois 

 long house and the Algonquin circular hut marks of distinction, 

 but these are far from invariable. The Iroquois have been con- 

 sidered the higher intellectually and the more eloquent, but this 

 was partly the result of their frequent regular or special councils 

 as a great power. Indeed they adopted captives or allies so 

 largely that but few of pure Iroquois blood may have lived in 

 historic times. The training alone continued, and this developed 

 a high type of aboriginal life. They were accustomed to plan, 

 fight and rule. In later days their vantage ground between the 



