Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/200

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Reviews.

Arch^ological Report, 1898 : being part of Appendix to THE Report of the Minister of Education, Ontario, Printed by order of the Legislative Assembly. Toronto : Warwick Brothers & Rutter, 1898.

The greater part of this Report by Mr. David Boyle, Curator of the Museum at Toronto, is occupied by an account of the pagan Iroquois on the Grand River Reserve in Canada. After an outline of the myth of Joskeha and Tawiskara, and some observations upon it, the author abstracts from Mr. James Mooney's monograph, published by the Bureau of Ethnology, on the Ghost Dance Reli- gion, an account of the prophets and religious movements among various Indian tribes, beginning with the Delaware prophet who appeared in 1762. He points out that before the Discovery from time to time men arose " claiming superior knowledge respecting the performance of rites, the movements in dances, the singing of songs, the interpretation of dreams, the existence and power of spirits, and the influences of natural phenomena." Holding the opinion that the Indian had no belief in a Supreme Being before contact with white men, the author attributes to this contact very much of the tone and tenour of the teaching of prophets during the historical period. He then, following Morgan and an article by the Rev. Dr. Beauchamp in the Journal of American Folklore for 1897, supplemented by his own inquiries on the Grand River Reserve, and interspersed with critical remarks, narrates the story of the revelation in 1790 to Ska-ne-o-dyo, of whom the pagan Iroquois whose ceremonies he is about to describe are followers. The object of this revelation was evidently the preservation of the Iroquois from contamination by the vices and the blood of the white men, and their propagation and perpetuation as a people. Mr. Boyle then proceeds to describe a number of festivals at which he has been present, beginning with the Midwinter Festival and including the interesting ceremony of the Burning of the White Dog. The result of his inquiries is to leave the original motive and meaning of this rite in doubt. The dog seems either to have been a messenger or a vicarious offering, perhaps to the sun. At the present day, however, there can be little question, after reading Mr. Boyle's translations of the songs and speeches, that it is a sacrifice to the Great Spirit.

Among the secret societies of the pagan Iroquois the most