Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/423

 Iroquois Women. 85

at one time slain by the Hurons. The Oneidas had made peace with the Mohawks, and sent to them " for some men to be married to the girls and women who had remained without husbands, that the nation should nor. perish. This is why the Iroquois name that village their child."

Charlevoix said, " Among the Iroquois the woman never leaves her cabin, she being deemed the mistress, or at least the heiress of it ; in other nations she goes at the expiration of a year or two after her marriage to live with her mother-in-law." This must be under- stood with some reservation, but in all marriages the woman was the principal person concerned, the one after whom the cabin was usually named.

In Canada the Hurons had an annual custom of marrying two young girls to their fishing nets, or rather to the genius of the nets. The reason for this custom was by no means creditable to the character of the Huron women, and it was found nowhere else. The girls were but six or seven years old, and the ceremony is de- scribed in the Relation for 1636. " The seine is placed between these two virgins ; this is to make it lucky in taking fish." In general the women had less to do with the unseen world than the men, but they sometimes were given to magic arts, and have some share in medi- cine societies yet.

If they had no great prominence in magical arts at an early day it was not because they were undervalued. They might belong to the Iroquois Agciandr.rs y or nobility. In 167 1 a Christian Mohawk woman left her country to live in Canada. On this her family " degraded her from the nobility, in an assembly of the chiefs of the town, and took away the name and title of Oiander, that is to say, esteemed, a quality which they much estee-h and which she had inherited from her ancestors, and deserved by her own good spirit,, her prudence and wise conduct, and at the same time they installed another in her place. These women are much respected ; chey hold council, and the Ancients complete no affair of consequence without their advice."

Lafitau said, " There is nothing more real than this superiority of the women. It is they who constitute the tribe, keep up the genealogical tree and the order of inheritance, and perpetuate the family. They possess all real authority ; own the land and the fields, and their harvests, they are the soul of ail councils, the arbiters of peace and war : they have care of the public treasury: slaves are * given co them : tney arrange marriages ; the children belong to theni, and tc them and their blood is confined the line oi descent and the order of inheritance," He believed that the council simply aided woman in matters in which it was not becoming tor them tc act.

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