Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

"The Iroquois Book of Rites" from Horatio Hale. American-canadian ethnologist, philologist and businessman.

The aboriginal composition now presented to the public has some peculiar claims on the attention of scholars. As a record, if we accept the chronology of its custodians, --which there is no reason to question, --it carries back the authentic history of Northern America to a date anterior by fifty years to the arrival of Columbu

Excerpt from Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation: A Study in Anthropology
A Lawgiver of the Stone Age. By Horatio Hale, of Clinton, Ontario, Canada.
What was the intellectual capacity of man when he made his first appearance upon the earth? Or, to speak with more scientific precision (as the question relates to material evidences), what were the mental powers of the people who fashioned the earliest stone implements, which are admitted to be the oldest remaining traces of our kind? As these people were low in the arts of life, were they also low in natural capacity? This is...

This book presents the origin of primitive money and how it is used since the last centuries. (With the illustration of old moneys used by our ancestors.) "If money is viewed simply as a tool used to facilitate transactions, only those media that are readily accepted in exchange for goods, services, and other assets need to be considered. Many things - from stones to baseball cards - have served this monetary function through the ages." (The Federal Reserve Bank)

Horatio Hale presents a detailed looks at the rites of the Iroquois Native American Tribe.