Senecas; but, except on occasions of unusual importance, it does not
appear that they took a very active part in the conduct of wars. The
Iroquois lived in a state of chronic warfare with nearly all the
surrounding tribes, except a few from whom they exacted tribute. Any man
of sufficient personal credit might raise a war-party when he chose.
He proclaimed his purpose through the village, sang his war-songs,
struck his hatchet into the war-post, and danced the war-dance. Any who
chose joined him; and the party usually took up their march at once,
with a little parched-corn-meal and maple-sugar as their sole provision.
On great occasions, there was concert of action,--the various parties
meeting at a rendezvous, and pursuing the march together. The leaders of
war-parties, like the orators, belonged, in nearly all cases, to the
class of subordinate chiefs. The Iroquois had a discipline suited to the
dark and tangled forests where they fought. Here they were a terrible
foe: in an open country, against a trained European force, they were,
despite their ferocious valor, far less formidable.

In observing this singular organization, one is struck by the incongruity
of its spirit and its form. A body of hereditary oligarchs was the head
of the nation, yet the nation was essentially democratic. Not that the
Iroquois were levellers. None were more prompt to acknowledge
superiority and defer to it, whether established by usage and
prescription, or the result of personal endowment. Yet each man, whether
of high or low degree, had a voice in the conduct of affairs, and was
never for a moment divorced from his wild spirit of independence.
Where there was no property worthy the name, authority had no fulcrum and
no hold. The constant aim of sachems and chiefs was to exercise it
without seeming to do so. They had no insignia of office. They were no
richer than others; indeed, they were often poorer, spending their
substance in largesses and bribes to strengthen their influence. They