Note 45 — History, Manners, and Customs OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE INDIANS.

[The following is the passage from Loskiel, which that historian copied from David Zeisberger’s “Collection of Notes on the Indians,” compiled by the missionary during his residence in the valley of the Tuscarawas, about 1778. “According to the account of the Delawares, they were always too powerful for the Iroquois, so that the latter were at length convinced that if they continued the war, their total extirpation would be inevitable. They therefore sent the following message to the Delawares: ‘It is not profitable that all the nations should be at war with each other, for this will at length be the ruin of the whole Indian race. We have therefore considered a remedy by which this evil may be prevented. One nation shall be the woman. We will place her in the midst, and the other nations who make war shall be the man, and live around the woman. No one shall touch or hurt the woman, and if any one does it, we will immediately say to him, “Why do you beat the woman?” Then all the men shall fall upon him who has beaten her. The woman shall not go to war, but endeavor to keep peace with all. Therefore, if the men that surround her beat each other, and the war be carried on with violence, the woman shall have the right of addressing them, “Ye men, what are ye about? why do you beat each other? We are almost afraid. Consider that your wives and children must perish, unless you desist. Do you mean to destroy yourselves from the face of the earth?” The men shall then hear and obey the woman.’ The Delawares add, that, not immediately perceiving the intention of the Iroquois, they submitted to be the woman. The Iroquois then appointed a great feast, and invited the Delaware nation to it; when, in consequence of the authority given them, they made a solemn speech containing three capital points. The first was, that they declared the Delaware nation to be the woman in the following words: 'We dress you in a woman’s long habit, reafilled ching down to your feet, and adorn you with ear-rings;’ meaning that they should no more take up arms. The second point was thus expressed: ‘We hang a calabash with oil and medicine upon your arm. With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of the other nations, that they may attend to good and not to bad words, and with the medicine you shall heal those who are walking in foolish ways, that they may return to their senses and incline their hearts to peace.’ The third point, by which the Delawares were exhorted to make agriculture their future employ and means of subsistence, was thus worded: 'We deliver into your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe.’ Each of these points was confirmed by delivering a belt of wampum, and these belts have been carefully laid up, and their meaning frequently repeated.

“The Iroquois, on the contrary, assert that they conquered the Delawares, and that the latter were forced to adopt the defenceless state and appellation of a woman to avoid total ruin.

“Whether these different accounts be true or false, certain it is that the Delaware nation has ever since been looked to for preservation of peace, and entrusted with the charge of the great belt of peace and chain of friendship, which they must take care to preserve inviolate. According to the figurative explanation of the Indians, the middle of the chain of friendship is placed upon the shoulder of the Delaware, the rest of the Indian nations holding one end and the Europeans the other.”]