Abstract

The Iroquois Book of Rites

The article discusses the book "The Iroquois Book of Rites," edited by Horatio Hale. The book opens a field of Indian research new to ethnologists. The members of the general council of the Iroquois, which met at Onondaga before the partial emigration of this race to Canada, were by no means proportionate to the population of the tribes they represented; but this was of little consequence, for to arrive at a decision unanimity of the "nations" was necessary. The Introduction contains chapters on the history of the Huron-Iroquois tribes; the Iroquois league in the State of New York, its laws and founders, clans and classes; the modes and rites of condolence and installation of newly-elected chiefs in the Iroquois Confederacy; the Iroquois character and policy, as well as the general features of their language.