it is hardly possible to define the creed of the people comprising the iroquois, for it was so intermingled with curious superstitions of every kind that it cannot be traced to a continuous doctrine like the religions of other peoples. they had no special teachers of religion, and the privilege of adding as many superstitions as the mind could conceive was possessed by each individual member. thus their religious belief was encumbered with almost every superstition that could be created in the minds of an ignorant and uncivilized people dwelling in wildernesses filled with numerous wild beasts and given over to the undisputed sway of solitude.
in a general way, however, according to the explanations made by cornplanter of the belief entertained by him, their religion saw god as a great and loving spirit whose extended arms bore up and encircled the universe. they believed this great spirit created all the objects, both animate and inanimate, upon the earth; that he smiled upon his people in sunshine and shower, and frowned upon ? 170 ? them in fierce storms and whirlwinds. he peopled the air with millions of embodied spirits, some of which were evil, and unless propitiated caused pain, sickness, trouble and death. others were good spirits and aided the hunter in his chase, the lover in his suit, and brought male offspring to the mother's arms. finally, he had prepared for them a "happy hunting-ground," where every one should go after death. there beautiful birds would make resonant the hills and valleys with their enchanting song. the great spirit had covered that vast and magnificent country with plains, and forests, and limpid streams, in which and over which would sport the red deer, bears, buffaloes, wild horses and all animals and fishes useful for clothing and food. the good indian could there reside forever with his wives and papooses, climbing the rugged hills without weariness, sporting in the rivers and lakes that never failed to supply an abundance of fish—always returning from the chase laden with the trophies of his skill. but the bad indian would return from the chase empty-handed; he would lose his way and wander in the labyrinth of beautiful paths that led him beside fields of growing maize which disappeared when he attempted to pluck the glistening ears. then ? 171 ? his more fortunate brothers would take pity upon him and lead him to his home, and his punishment would be the chagrin he would feel when of necessity he was compelled to partake of his brother's bounty.
in the beginning, the red men dwelt with the great spirit in this delightful country, but they were so boisterous and full of play that the great spirit could get no rest on account of their noise. besides this, there were no evil spirits or dangers there, and they could not learn to be brave and courageous unless they were situated where they came in contact with opposition and trouble. so the great spirit made a large basket in which he placed the red men, carefully covering them so they could not see the trail by which he took them from his home. he brought them to the earth and left them with the promise that when they had acquired bravery and circumspection they should again be carried to his home and there dwell for "so many moons that all the needles on the greatest pine tree would not tell them all."
the iroquois held sacred no day on which to perform particular religious exercises, but they had several annual festivals which were observed with regularity for ages, and which are, in a measure, ? 172 ? celebrated by the so-called pagans among the senecas, onondagas and tuscaroras at the present time. the first of these was the "maple dance," and exemplified their way of thanking the great spirit for tempering the wind so that the snows would disappear and the sweet waters would flow from the sides of the maple trees that abounded in the wilderness about their homes. previous to holding this, and all other festivals, the inhabitants of each village would meet at the council-place for what might be termed to-day "a confession of sins"—for such it really was. when all had assembled, one of the oldest sachems would stand before his brethren with a string of white wampum in his hands and tell wherein he had sinned according to indian ethics. when he had concluded, the wampum would be passed to another, and so on until all had unburdened themselves. the open declaration of their misdeeds did not relieve them of the consequences of the deeds themselves, but in a measure it tempered the punishment. the moral code may be briefly summed up as follows:
it was a sin to neglect the old in any manner, or to refuse to share with them the fruits of the chase or the products of the fields, and it was especially sinful to neglect or disregard aged or infirm parents.
to speak in derision or slightingly of anyone who might be lame, blind, idiotic, insane—crippled in any manner or unfortunate in any degree, or to refuse them aid or shelter.
to refuse to share food or shelter with anyone who might apply for either, or to fail to care for the sick and for orphan children and widows.
to break any treaty or agreement made at the council-fire when the peace-pipe had been smoked, or after the parties making the treaty had partaken of food together.
to violate the chastity of any woman.
to kill animals for any other purpose than for food and covering, and for the protection of growing crops and human life.
to tell a falsehood, even though it might be of the most innocent character.
to show cowardice in meeting any kind of danger or to shrink from exposure, pain, suffering, sickness or death.
to take human life unless the person killed was a member of a tribe with which the iroquois was at war.
there were no punishments prescribed for breaking any of these or other recognized laws, but the person offending by the commission of the greater sins was, by common consent and custom, shunned, scorned, shamed, neglected, pointed at and ostracised from all connection whatever with his tribe and relatives. this generally resulted in the culprit's ? 174 ? suicide, which was looked upon as a very brave act, and was full reparation for the wrongs committed.
soon after the "maple dance" had been held came the "planting festival," which was conducted as a thank offering to the great spirit for unfolding the buds upon the trees, decking the woods and fields with flowers and warming the earth so that it could receive and nourish the seed.
when the seed had been planted, and upon the appearance of the first shoots of corn, the "hope festival" was held. at this time, as the red men circled around the glowing fires, they called upon the great spirit to protect the seeds that he had given life and asked him to bring them to maturity. they sprinkled leaves of tobacco upon the fires and repeated slow, monotonous chants or prayers that had been used by them for unknown generations. they asked the great spirit to give attention to their words arising to him in the smoke and not to let his ears become closed that he might not hear. they said:
thy children thank thee for the life thou hast given the dead seeds. give us a good season that our crops may be plentiful. continue to listen for the smoke still rises. preserve our old men among ? 175 ? us and protect the young. help us to celebrate this festival as did our fathers.
the "green corn festival" was held when the season had so far advanced that the corn was ready to be used as roasting ears. the old women decided when this time had come, and none might partake of the corn until the festival had proceeded to the proper stage. this was a time of returning to the great spirit their thanks for his goodness, and the festivities lasted several days. they were wild and uncouth, of course, but the participants had faith that these ceremonies were pleasing to the great spirit. the revelry was conducted in a prescribed form that probably did not change for centuries. in the midst of one of the dances peculiar to the "green corn festival" the oldest sachem of the tribe gave utterance to a prayer of thanksgiving, which has been translated as follows:
great spirit in the happy hunting-grounds, listen to our words. we have assembled to perform a sacred duty as thou hast commanded and which has been performed by our fathers since thou taught them to observe this festival. we salute thee with our thanks that thou hast caused our supporters to yield abundant harvest.
great spirit, our words continue to flow towards ? 176 ? thee. preserve us from all danger. preserve our aged men. preserve our mothers. preserve our warriors. preserve our children. preserve our old men that they may remember all that thou hast told them. preserve our young men and give them strength to celebrate with pleasure thy sacred festival.
great spirit, the council of thy people here assembled, the men and women with many winters on their heads, the strong warriors, the women and children, unite their voices in thanksgiving to thee.
the "harvest festival" was held a few weeks afterwards and was similar in character, though not considered of so much importance as the "green corn festival."
some time during the winter was held the "white dog dance." this, however, was not of so ancient an origin as the other festivals and was probably a superstition promulgated by some of the great "medicine men" within the last two hundred and fifty years. evil spirits that might have been driven into the houses of the indians by the cold, were induced by various ceremonies to enter the body of a white dog or gray fox that was led from house to house for that purpose. then, with due ceremony, the animal was killed and the bad spirits cremated with the body—the jaws having ? 177 ? been tied together so that the spirits could not escape through its mouth, into which they had entered.
the indians had numerous other ceremonial dances and any number of social dances—more than any other race of people, for they had few other amusements—but those enumerated above were the only strictly religious festivals. these were in every sense reverential, devotional and inspired by faith. the red men believed that if they observed them according to ancient customs and usages it would please the great spirit and that he would eventually take them all to the happy hunting-grounds. while they clearly believed in an immortal life and in the resurrection of the body, they had no belief whatever in the infliction of future punishment, other than that experienced by the hunter whose arrows could not procure the game he coveted and trailed in the land where game abounded forever.
had these people, possessing (as they most certainly did) a religion combining so many of the elements of the christian religion, been discovered by any one of the enlightened nations of the present day instead of by the intolerant and greedy bigots of four hundred years ago, their history would not ? 178 ? have been written with so many sad scenes for illustrations.
about the year 1800 a new religion was revealed to the members of the iroquois then residing in new york state, and as it is what is now known as the pagan belief, it may be well to describe it briefly. at that time there was living on cornplanter island, in the state of pennsylvania, a half-brother of cornplanter and blacksnake by a common father—abeel, the white trader. his name was handsome lake (ga-ne-o-di-yo), and he was born near the site of the village of avon, n. y., in 1735, and died in 1815 at onondaga when on a pastoral visit to that nation. his life had been spent mainly in dissipation, and in his old age he fell ill and was not expected to live from day to day. one night he sent his daughter to summon his renowned brothers to his bedside, as he was convinced that his end was drawing near. his brothers reached the house shortly after daylight and found handsome lake at some distance from the hut, apparently dead. they carried him in and had commenced to make preparations for the funeral, when suddenly he revived, sat upright and commenced to talk very strangely. he recovered rapidly and at his urgent request a council of his people was ? 179 ? summoned to meet at cornplanter, and to this assembly he revealed all that had befallen him.
his revelations soon became the religion of the iroquois and may be considered their creed at the present time. handsome lake journeyed from tribe to tribe and taught the new faith till his death, fifteen years after. he was regarded as a second hiawatha and had wonderful influence. after his death other teachers took his place and continued to expound the new faith as nearly as possible in the exact words of him to whom it was believed to have been first revealed. unlike modern theologians, they made no attempt to put their views and ideas ahead of the original revelation, for they commenced each new section of the long and tedious recital with the words, "thus said handsome lake," and they followed him as closely as possible, both in words and gestures. they did not add to or take away—they simply repeated. the last great follower of handsome lake was his grandson (sase-ha-wa), known to the whites as jimmy johnson, who died about 1830. about the middle of august, 1894, a grand council of the chiefs was held at onondaga, and on that occasion these traditions were revived, several days being spent in the work.
stripped of long explanations as to how the message was told and the details of the various provisions and requirements, the creed of handsome lake was as follows:
as he lay in his cabin looking out of the window at the stars, momentarily expecting death, three beautiful men came to his couch and gave him some berries to eat, which threw him into a deep sleep. when he awoke he was told by one of the men that he might live if he would throughout the remainder of his life be a teacher of his people and speak to them the words that the great spirit put into his mouth. he promised to do this and immediately became strong. then the men conducted him to the outer air, where he was found by his brothers, and, after showing him many wonderful things concerning the happy hunting-grounds, again threw him into a sleep and disappeared. when he taught he closed his eyes and spoke only the words put into his mouth by the great spirit; therefore, whatever he told them was inspired. the doctrines expounded by him did not displace any of the old ceremonies so dear to the heart of the iroquois. in fact, he urged the observance of all the religious dances, saying they were pleasing to the creator. his first efforts were ? 181 ? directed toward the eradication of intemperance, and here entered the first threat of future punishment in the creed of the iroquois. a drunkard was promised boiling hot liquor, which he must drink in great quantities. when he had drunk until he could hold no more, streams of fire would issue from his mouth and he would be commanded to sing as he had done on earth after drinking the fire-water. husbands and wives who had been quarrelsome on earth were to be compelled to rage at each other till their eyes and tongues ran out so far they could neither see nor speak. a wife-beater would be repeatedly led before a red-hot statue which he would be told to strike as he struck his wife upon earth, and when the blow fell, molten sparks would fly from the image and burn his arm to the bone. lazy people were compelled to till cornfields in a burning sun, and as fast as the weeds were struck down they would again spring up with renewed luxuriance. those who sold the lands of their people to the whites were assigned to the task of removing a never-diminishing pile of sand, one grain at a time, over a vast distance.
these are but samples of the terrible punishments to be dealt out to evil-doers of all kinds.
at the same time he taught that rewards would be freely bestowed to those who kept the laws laid down by the great spirit, and into these laws as revealed by handsome lake, with many fanciful and poetical imaginings that pleased the simple people to whom he taught, he wove the ten commandments. he taught morality, temperance, patience, forbearance, charity, forgiveness, and all the cardinal virtues.
handsome lake implicitly believed that the vision he described was a direct visitation from the creator, and he also believed that in his teachings he was simply giving voice to the wishes of that creator. there is little doubt that he exerted a decided influence for good, as did also his followers for many years after his death; but when sects and denominations commenced to tumble over each other in their zeal to "christianize the iroquois," and hair-splitting questions of theology were put forward to confuse and confound the teachings of the prophet of their own blood, the indians began to doubt all that had been told them in the past and their ears were stopped to all that might be preached to them in the future. it may be truthfully stated that few indians have at present any well-grounded religious belief, yet if they were not ? 183 ? fearful that it would cause them to be subjected to further legal restrictions they would be well pleased to return once more to the free enjoyment of the teachings of handsome lake, their greatest prophet.
