mot© continental antiquity for these/tribes. ft
is hardly to be supposed that large numbers of
the primitive adventurers landed at any one time
or place; nor is it more probable that the. epochs
of'thhse early adventurers were very numerous,
Th^s^solute conformity of physical features
renders this improbable. The early migrations
mast '4 a m l ^ ? i ^ s s ^ % ' confined to portions
of the old world peopled by the red rme—^
by a race, not only of red skins, black hair and
eyes;-and high cheek bones* who would reproduce
these fixed characteristics^ «d infinitum? but
whose whole mental as well as physiological develops
me nt assimilates -it-, as- a ^distinct unity of
the'species. While physiology, however, asserts
this unity, in the course 6f the dispersion
and multiplication of tribe's, their languages*
granting all that, can be asked for on the. score
of original diversity, became divided into an infinite
number of dialects and tortgu,es. Between
theSe dialects, however, where -they are .even
the most diverse, there is a singular coincidence
in many of the leading principles' of Uncord
and regimen, and polysynthetic arrangementi
Such diversities in sound* amounting, as they do
in many cases, for instance, in the stocks of the
Algonquin and Iroquois,, to an almost total difference,
must have required many Ages for their
production. % And this fact alone affords i a proof
of the continental antiquity of the American
race.
$jk Iroquois tradition opens-with the notion that
there were originally two worlds; or regions of
space, namely, an upper and lower world. The
upper- wa& inhabited by beings similar to the
hitman race; the lower by monsters, moving in
the waters. When the - human speCiCH^were
transferred below, and the lower sphere was
about to bse rendered fib for their residence, the
gtet of their -transference’or reproduction is concentrated
in the idea of* a female, who began to
descend into the lower world, which is depicted
as a region of darkness, water©' and monsters.
i§he -was /rfeeeived on the back of - a tortoise;
where she gave birth to male twins, and expired.
The shell of Jhfe tortoise'expanded into the com
tinent, which, in their phraseology, is called an
island; and is named by the Onondag-Hs, Aonea*
One" of the infants was called Imgorio,. or the
Hood Mind; the other, Imgohatea', or the Bad
Mind. These two antagonistical principles,
which are .such perfect counterparts of the Or-
muzdand Ahriman of Zoroaster, were at perpetual
variance, it being the law of one to counteract
whatever the other did; They were not, however;
men; hut gods, or existences, through whom
the Great Spiiit, or Holder of the Heavens, carried
out his purposes. The first labor of Imgorio
' * From this word, jthe term' Aohic' has b§ten employed to
give a MefriKi ’f e 6^e&tds<aifebil§iit)ns which relate to topics
withm lieh^rfitorial area of thfe United States, particularly its
unffs ^msferiptibirs and inonuments; and the Indian stocks
i l l yoHherxf h^m-l^plier e