144 HISTORY OF THE IROQUOIS.
titer this is the disposition of all ghosts, or the
power and propensity he confined to those of
particular persons^ who have been cannibals in
life,, or have otherwise come under the condemnation
of public feeling, is not known. It is
believed, that such doomed. spirits creep into
the lodges of men at night, and during i§ie©p
suck their blood, and eat their flesh. They are
invisible. Farther inquiries jon this subject are
required. Heretofore, we have heard much m
witchcraft - and necromancy' among the . Worth
American Indians. The belief in these, appears
to be universal. I know not a tribë, êast or west
of the Alleghanies, where it is\ not, or iw not,
formerly eommon. Transformations and the
doctrine of metempsychosis, are equally common.
But hitherto, the horrid idea of the vam-
pyre has not been noticed. It is a Greek idea,
and contrary to the générai traits of the Indian
mind, and not of an Asiatic cast. '
The nations of Europe, who are most "under
the influence of this belief in modern days!
appear to be the Russians, Servians, Lithubniansj
and modern Greeks. Have we then, an element
in the Iroquois tribes, which we are to search
for among the nations who anciently bordered
on the Mediterranean ? This fevers the early
and oft-repeated idea of a Phoenician element of
population in thé early constituents of our western
hemisphere. I f there be such an element, in
the history of the past, it must, like all foreign
EPOCH AND PRINCIPLES OF THE LEAGUE. 145
intrusions of the kind,, soon have gone down by
amalgamation. Yet, if there he any tribe, in the
whole ample range of America, who have manifested
traits o f Grecian firmness and association,
it is the Iroquois.