Legendary Founding of the Iroquois
Confederacy
"Thadodaho has not yet had the snakes combed from his hair; Deganawida, said some to stammer, stands behind Hiawatha who serves as his speaker "
Illustration excerpted Henry R.
Schoolcraft, History, Condition and Prospects of the Iroquois
Tribes of the United States, Part 1 (Philadelphia,
1853)
Courtesy : Library
National Museums of Canada
Canada's Visual History CD
National Museums of Canada
Canada's Visual History CD
The name Atotarho (or, with a prefixed particle, Thatotarho) signifies "entangled." The usual process by which mythology, after a few generations, makes fables out of names, has not been wanting here. In the legends which the Indian story-tellers recount in winter, about their cabin fires, Atotarho figures as a being of preterhuman nature, whose head, in lieu of hair, is adorned with living snakes. A rude pictorial representation shows him seated and giving audience, in horrible state, with the upper part of his person enveloped by these writhing and entangled reptiles. ..... Excerpted Iroquois Book of Rites ... Internet Sacred Text Archive
