Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/137

 Notes on the Folk- Lore of the Wyandots. 125

Mo., is an adopted Wyandot of the Deer Clan, raised up to fill the position of Sahr'-stahr-rah'-tseh, the famous chief of the Wyandots known to history as the Half-King. The latter was chief during the war of the Revolution, and one of the founders of the Northwestern Confederacy of Indians, that opposed so long the settlement of the territory northwest of the Ohio River. The Wyandots stood at the head of this confederacy, and were the keepers of the Council Fire thereof. The writer, who has also received the Wyandot name of Deh'-hehn-yahn'-teh, The Rainbow, has had frequent occasion to transact business for this people, and in the course of such duty has become interested in their language, history, man- ners, customs, and religious beliefs. He has also written an account of the clan system and other features of the tribal society. He has prepared an extensive vocabulary of the language, not yet published, and made a collection of the songs which by missionaries and others have been rendered into the Wyandot tongue. At the present time the opportunity for such studies has passed away, inasmuch as the old Wyandots from whom this information was received, with one excep- tion, have died, and the present generation is wholly ignorant of the ancient beliefs. No folk-lore could be obtained from any Wyandot now living, and few can speak the language.

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