BRINTON'S LIBRARY OF ABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE.

NUMBER II.




THE IROQUOIS BOOK OF RITES.


EDITED BY
HORATIO HALE; M.A.,


AUTHOR OF "THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY
OF THE U.S. EXPLORING EXPEDITION," ETC.





PREFACE.

The aboriginal composition now presented to the public has some peculiar
claims on the attention of scholars. As a record, if we accept the
chronology of its custodians,--which there is no reason to question,--it
carries back the authentic history of Northern America to a date
anterior by fifty years to the arrival of Columbus. Further than this,
the plain and credible tradition of the Iroquois, confirmed by much
other evidence, links them with the still earlier Alligewi, or