AMERICANS. 81 
but principsillj in tradition. They often discover great ingenuity in 
communicating information to the absent. Of the following instance 
of hieroglyphic writing. Dr. Mitchel was an eye-witness. The Dr. in 
company with several other gentlemen, as they were proceeding up 
the Onondago river to an Indian treaty, overtook several canoes of 
Seneka Indians, who encamped with them, near fort Brewington, and 
the next day proving rainy, they continued in company till the weather 
became so favourable as to permit them to cross the Oneida Lake. During 
the storm, one of the Indian canoes stove, and became unfit for service. 
The commissioners took the crew on board their boat, and carried 
them to a landing place, some distance up Wood Creek. Here one of 
them, before he forsook the water, took the following method to let 
his companions, who were left behind, know when and whither they 
had proceeded. He took a piece of wood, and hewed it fiat and 
smooth, and then raked his fire for a suitable coal, with which lie 
rudely delineated, on the slab, the figure of an Indian carrying his 
gun reversed upon his shoulder. In front of him he drew a crooked 
line, which reached to a man with a long coat and cocked hat, and 
holding a cane in his hand, and behind him a framed house. He 
then took a straight pole, and tied some weeds and grass upon one 
end of it, and fixed the other in the earth, in such a manner, that in 
the position the sun then was, which was six o’clock in the morning, 
it cast no shadow, or, in other words, he pointed it exactly towards 
the sun. The meaning of all this was “ Susquewewmh, (the name of 
the Indian,) left this place at six o’clock in the morning, or when the 
sun was in the place where the pole pointed, and has proceeded up 
wood Creek, (which is remakably crooked,) to the settlement where the 
commissioners of the state of New York are assembled to hold a 
trea,ty with the Indians.” All these insignia were arranged so conspicu- 
ously on the margin of the creek, that his companions behind could 
scarcely avoid observing them as they passed. 
Marriages. 
Although the women generally bear the laborious part of domes- 
tic economy, their condition is far from being so slavish as it appears. 
On the contrary, the greatest respect is paid by the men to the female 
sex. The women even hold their councils, and have their share in 
all deliberations which concern the state. Polygamy is praictised by 
some nations, but is not general. In most they content themselves 
with one wife, but divorce is admitted in case of adultery. No nation 
of the Americans is without a regular marriage, in which there are 
many ceremonies, the principal of which is, the bride’s presenting the 
bridegroom with a plate of their corn. The women, though before 
incontinent, are remarkable for chastity after marriage. 
Punishments. 
Controversies among the Indians are but few, and quickly de- 
cided. When any criminal matter is so fiagrant as to become a na- 
tional concern, it is brought under the jurisdiction of the great coun- 
cil ; but in ordinary cases the crime is either revenged or compromised 
by the parties concerned. If a murder be committed, the family 
h 
