The league of the Iroquois and other legends : from the Indian muse

NOTES. 315
Note 59. "ITis dishes all were carved and wrought. Page 230.
Out, of the skulls of warriors dead,
The trophies from the battle brought."
" Most distinguished, however, above all others, east or west, was a leader of
great courage and wisdom arid address, called Ot-o-tar-ho ;
aud when they proposed
to form a league, this person, who had inspired dread, and kept himself
retired, was anxiously sought. He was found sitting in a swamp, smoking his
pipe, and rendered completely invulnerable by living snakes. * * His dishes
were made of the skulls of enemies, whom he had slain iu battle.
" Ilim, when they had duly approached with presents, aud burned tobacco iu
friendship, in their pipes, by way of frankincense, they placed at the head of
their league, as its presiding officer. * * And his name, like that of King Arthur
of the Round Table, or those of the Paladins of Charlemagne, was used after his
(loath as an exemplar of glory and honor; while, like that of Caesar, it became
perpetuated as the official title of the presiding officer. * * It is said that the
thirteenth Ot-o-tar-ho reigned at Oiiondaga when America was discovered."
Xotts on the Iroqaois.
Note 60. "AJiery soul that most could sway Page 231.
All 2)assions with the might of speech.'
" For readiness to perceive the jiosition of the Red Race as civilization gathered
around them, curtailing their hunting-grounds, and hemming up their path in
various ways for
; quickness of apprehension, and breadth of forecast, and appositeuess
and sharpness of reply, no one of the leading groups of tribes in North
America has equaled the Seneca Orator, Red Jacket, or Sa-go-ye-wat-ha."
H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT, Vol. III. p. 198.
Noted. "Who weakly owned no brother's God, Page 231.
Xor less adjudged for wisdom thence."
" He had no doubt that Christianity was good for white people, but the red men
were a different race aud required a different religion. He believed that Jesus
Christ was a good man, and that the whites should all be sent to hell for killing
him; but the red men, having no hand iu his death, were clear of that crime.
The Saviour was not sent to them, the atonement not made for them, nor the
Bible given to them.
" If the Great Spirit had intended they should be Christians, he would have
made his revelations to them as well as the whites ;
aud not having made it, it
was clearly his will that they should continue in the faith of their fathers."
CAMPBELL'S Indian Tribes of North America.
Note 62. "On battle-field, in Council-halt, Page 232.
Alike created to command."
" The Oueida sachem, Sken-an-do, electrified the moral community when a
hundred years had cast their frosts around his noble and majestic brow, by views
of the tenure aud destinies of life, which were worthy of the lips of Job."
H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT, Vol. III. p. 198.
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