tribe, and when, from their great council-house of bark, in
the Valley of Onondaga, their messengers had gone forth to
invite the warriors to arms, then from east to west, through
the farthest bounds of the confederacy, a thousand warlike
hearts caught up the summons with glad alacrity. With
fasting and praying, and consulting dreams and omens, with
invoking the war-god, and dancing the frantic war-dance, the
warriors sought to insure the triumph of their arms; and,
these strange rites concluded, they began their stealthy
progress, full of confidence, through the devious pathways
of the forest. For days and weeks, in anxious expectation,
the villagers await the result. And now, as evening closes,
a shrill wild cry, pealing from afar, over the darkening
forest, proclaims the return of the victorious warriors. The
village is alive with sudden commotion; and snatching sticks
and stones, knives and hatchets, men, women, and children,
yelling like fiends let loose, swarm out of the narrow
portal, to visit upon the miserable captives a foretaste of
the deadlier torments in store for them. And now, the black
arches of the forest glow with the fires of death; and with
brandished torch and firebrand the frenzied multitude close
around their victim. The pen shrinks to write, the heart
sickens to conceive, the fierceness of his agony; yet still,
amid the din of his tormentors, rises his clear voice of
scorn and defiance. The work is done; the blackened trunk is
flung to the dogs, and, with clamorous shouts and hootings,
the murderers seek to drive away the spirit of their victim.

"The Iroquois reckoned these barbarities among their most
exquisite enjoyments; and yet they had other sources of
pleasure, which made up in frequency and in innocence all
that they lacked in intensity. Each passing season had its
feasts and dances, often mingling religion with social
pastime. The young had their frolics and merry-makings; and
the old had their no less frequent councils, where
conversation and laughter alternated with grave
deliberations for the public weal. There were also stated
periods marked by the recurrence of momentous ceremonies, in
which the whole community took part--the mystic sacrifice of
the dogs, the wild orgies of the dream feast,