In his capacity as teacher and instructor, it was he who had pointed out to the ancestors of the Indians the roots and plants which are fit for food, and which are of value as medicine; he gave them fire, and recommended them never to allow it to become wholly extinguished in their villages; the sacred rites of what is called the _meday_ or ordinary religious ceremonial were defined and taught by him; the maize was his gift, and the pleasant art of smoking was his invention.[1] [Footnote 1: John Tanner, _Narrative of Captivity and Adventure_, p. 351. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, Vol. v, p. 420, etc.] A curious addition to the story was told the early Swedish settlers on the river Delaware by the Algonkin tribe which inhabited its shores. These related that their various arts of domestic life and the chase were taught them long ago by a venerable and eloquent man who came to them from a distance, and having instructed them in what was desirable for them to know, he departed, not to another region or by the natural course of death, but by ascending into the sky. They added that this ancient and beneficent teacher _wore a long beard_.[1] We might suspect that this last trait was thought of after the bearded Europeans had been seen, did it not occur so often in myths elsewhere on the continent, and in relics of art finished long before the discovery, that another explanation must be found for it. What this is I shall discuss when I come to speak of the more Southern myths, whose heroes were often "white and bearded men from the East." [Footnote 1: Thomas Campanius (Holm), _Description of the Province of New Sweden_, book iii, ch. xi. Campanius does not give the name of the hero-god, but there can be no doubt that it was the "Great Hare."] §2. _The Iroquois Myth of Ioskeha._[1] [Footnote 1: The sources from which I draw the elements of the Iroquois hero-myth of Ioskeha are mainly the following: _Relations de la Nouvelle France_, 1636, 1640, 1671, etc. Sagard, _Histoire du Canada_, pp. 451, 452 (Paris, 1636); David Cusick, _Ancient History of the Six Nations_, and manuscript material kindly furnished me by Horatio Hale, Esq., who has made a thorough study of the Iroquois history and dialects.]