An Account Of Aboriginal Freemasonry In The State Of New York.

as males ; of this character , may be considered the festivals of the Iroquois , of which " The White-dog festival" is the principal , and Avas the nearest related to their secret mysteries . As to these last , from their very nature , and the

thick veil of secrecy the ancient Iroquois threAv ¦ over them , concealing them from then . ' OAYU people , and not even making knoAvn the fact that such a society existed ,- it would have been very difficult 500 years ago for one , even of their OAVU nation

who Avas not an initiate , to obtain any light respecting such an association , IIOAV much greater the difficulty then for a pale face , ( as they call us ) ifo obtain such light now . 'The first intimation of the existence of such a

society among the Iroquois , was obtained from a statement made regarding it by De Witt Clinton in one of his addresses to the Grand Lodge of the 'State of NOAV York Avhen Grand Master thereof . 'The words he used were nearly as follows -. — I

received , he observed , my information from a Menomie Indian , who Avas also a preacher of the ¦ gospel among his people . This Menomie had himself been initiated into the mysteries . He represented that only a limited , and very select number could be admitted . That among the

Iroquois there could be only five Oneidas , tAA o St . _ 3 egis , aud six Senecas , in all thirteen . That they were obligated to keep the time and places of meeting secret , and meet only once in three years , and then on pretence of other business . "

For four or five years a society called the •** Wasahodenosonne" met annually in the State ¦ of NBAV York in the month of August . This society had been established iu the AVestern part of the state , Avith the avowed object of extending

the hand of fellowship , and of rendering aid to the Iroquois Avho still remained ( some 3 , 000 of them , with about 100 , 000 acres of land ) , and also to collect their traditions and history . In an address delivered to this association in 1847 , allusion was

made to this secret society amongst the Iroquois . The subject was taken up , and inquiries and researches elicited the fact , that the society Avas broken up at the time of the Ameiican Revolution , and that the only surviving member was a very

aged chief , over 100 years old , now , or then residing in Canada . From an . old Onondago chief , IIOAV dead , fragments of information were obtained Avhich he had derived from the Canada chief and others in his jauuger days , and which , but for the members of

An Account Of Aboriginal Freemasonry In The State Of New York.

the Wasahodenosonne having given substantial proofs of their being true friends of the Red Man , would never have been obtained . He pointed to the heavens , and to his own head and heart , as he said the old chief had given him to understand ,

for he dared not be explicit , that the mysteries taught was a knoAvledge of things above ( this might be of the true God and primitive worshi p , or of the heavenly bodies , or both ) , and what Avas meant by his heart he did not erplain , but it can

be easily conjectured . The name of the Iroquois secret society was Ho-nont-Roh . In a poem under the title of " Prontinac ; or , the Atotorho of the Iroquois , " allusion is made to this name by the author , Alfred B . Street , at page 192 of the Neiv York edition : —

" While frequently was seen the mark Of the Ho-nont-Roh next the other , Which none deciphered but a brother Order mysterious , secret , dark ! Each making ( all save this unknown And this by only actions shown ) The other ' s weal or Avoe its OAVU . And Atotorho was its head , " & c .

Among the Leni Lenapees , a generic name for several Indian tribes , there is evidence that secret societies existed , as Avell as among the Iroquois . The main secret among these relates to the manner of curin __ diseases . The Great Medicine

dance has a singular ceremony connected AVith it , to the following purport . The candidate is seated at the east end of the lodge . They dance up and round the candidate , and make a feint of shooting him AA ith then arroAvs ; a white bean is placed in

the candidate ' s mouth , and he is struck on the head Avith the medicine bag , and laid prostrate on the earth , to all appearances dead . He is stripped of his ornaments ( which are the fee for initiation ) , the body is rubbed , mysterious signs

made , words repeated in an unknown language . On the bean being taken out of his mouth , he is restored to life , and received as a medicine man , or , as Ave Avould render it , one of the magi , or " wiseacres / " as per the Bodleian MSS . —G ILES F . YATES .

Freemasonry And The Pope.

FREEMASONRY AND THE POPE .

We continue our extracts from the English Press upon the above subject . { Gloucestershire Chronicle . ] There are some constitutions which , when about to break * up from old age or some heavy infirmity , betray traces of their earlier vigour by bursting forth at times into paroxysms of passion as irnpo-