the year 1450, the Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Senecas were united in an offensive and defensive league; a hundred years later, the Mohawks arrived and settled permanently in the Mohawk Valley; and by 1570 the league had probably taken its historic form.

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Besides the Iroquois themselves, with their clan, their tribal and their confederate organization, there was also another class of producers to be found in every Iroquois village. This element in the population was composed of captives-slaves, the Jesuits call them and of some other persons of servile status. Slave labor, in a modified form, was employed by members of both men's and women's clans. Captives, whose lives had been spared for this purpose, did the hardest and most menial work in every line of production-in hunting and fishing, in agriculture, and in housework. "It was an Iroquois custom," says Mr. Carr, to use captives to assist their women in the labors of the field, in carrying burdens, and in doing general menial labor." Thus we hear of a certain mistress of twenty slaves who "knew not what it was to go to the forest to get wood, nor to the river to draw water." 2 Deserving captives were eventually admitted to clan membership.3 Nevertheless, at any given moment there were always two elements in the Iroquois population: on the one hand, the free producers, organized into clans and controlling the access to the sources of supply; on the other hand, the captives— an aggregation of individuals completely in the power of their conquerors. The other element in the servile class was composed very elaborate legislation, in the condition in which it stood at the time of its highest prosperity. To these views Morgan assents in his last word upon the subject."

1 Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 517. Cf. La Hontan, "Voyages,” II, 7—“" Women slaves are employed to sow and reap the Indian corn; the men slaves have for their business the hunting and shooting when there is any fatigue." Cf. Jes. Rel., XVI, 201; XXXI, 61, 71, 81; XXXIV, 117; XXXIX, 63, 187; LX, 185; II, 298.

3

Jes Rel., LIV, 93.

'Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 517-" When a captive proved himself possessed of what in their judgment constituted manly qualities, then he was fully adopted and admitted to all the privileges of an Iroquois."

of certain effeminate men of Iroquois birth. These persons, often perfectly able-bodied, but too self-indulgent to endure the hardships of hunting and war, had abandoned the men's clan and devoted themselves to field-work and other feminine occupations. Their desertion of the sphere of activity in which they were most needed was punished by contempt and scorn. According to Ely S. Parker, an educated Iroquois, "when any man, excepting the cripples, old men, and those disabled in war or hunting, chose to till the earth, he was at once ostracised from men's society, classed as a woman or squaw, and disqualified from sitting or speaking in the councils of his people until he had redeemed himself by becoming a skillful warrior or a successful hunter."1 Effeminate men and captives thus formed a servile class producing under the direction and authority of the clans.

At the same time there was arising, within the clan, a class of persons who, by virtue of the part they claimed to play in production, had a certain indefinite authority over the activities of the clan itself. The medicine men were the supposed masters of certain natural forces, without whose aid all labor would be in vain. No crop could succeed nor hunting expedition prosper, unless the medicine man exerted himself to bring good weather. At every turn the coöperation of the medicine man was necessary for the welfare of the clan. Just as the clans directed the labor and controlled every action of the servile classes, so the medicine men, in their turn, determined to a certain extent the ultimate fate of the clans.

To recapitulate:-the nature of their environment caused the Iroquois to pursue hunting and fishing, and even to a greater extent, agriculture, as a means of livelihood: a sexual division of labor resulted, the women devoting themselves mainly to agriculture, the men to warfare and hunting: within these groups,

'Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 517. The class of males in question existed in many semi-agricultural and hunting tribes in America. They rose in public estimation as the community tended more and more to go over to the agricultural basis and the work of the hunter and warrior became less important. Among the Illinois, for instance, the effeminate men were summoned to the councils and held in great respect. Jes. Rel., LIX, 129, p. 309, note 26.

coöperative methods of work were found advantageous, and hence the formation of the women's and of the men's clans-the former to carry on agriculture; the latter to attend to war and hunting: for reasons arising from the very nature of their work, and the differing degrees of importance of their product, the women's clan had a more conspicuous influence on the life of the community than the men's organization: altogether, the transitional stage of culture upon which the Iroquois were living, affords a valuable opportunity for the simultaneous study of the economy regulated by the hunting and warring clan of men, and of the first stages of the economy dominated by the communal clan: economic conditions, also, account for the organization of the clans into tribes, and of the latter into a confederacy: finally, the fact is patent that besides the Iroquois proper with their clan, tribal, and confederate organization, there also existed another class of producers, composed of captives and effeminate men, whose relation to the Iroquois was a coercive one, based upon the fact that their personal liberty was controlled by the clans: in addition, there were the medicine men who also exercised a sort of coercion over the clans; their power, based upon their supposed monopoly of the control of certain natural forces, being coextensive with the degree of credulity of the people.

CHAPTER IV.

THE WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS.

The wealth of the Iroquois, gained largely by coöperative effort, and without any private appropriation of the sources of supply, consisted of a heterogeneous collection of economic goods. Since there was no recognized standard in units of which the sum of values could be expressed, the Iroquois always considered their wealth in the concrete, as a relatively valuable collection of goods. Some of these were useful as production, others as direct consumption goods.

Among the production-goods of the Iroquois, there were certain implements of general use in forest life, while others owed their existence to the prevalence of some particular manner of producing raw material. All these articles, however, may be termed primary production-goods.

The simplest, and at the same time the most universally necessary implement in use among the Iroquois, as among all primitive peoples, was the knife.1 In nearly all productive operations it was the first tool needed; fortunately, it was also the most easily obtained. "If a knife was wanted," says Mr. Beauchamp, "a flake was picked up, to which in a few minutes an edge was given; it was used and thrown away.2 Larger and more carefully worked specimens of stone, bone, or wood were also made and preserved for permanent use. Among those of stone, some were nearly circular, and chipped to a sharp edge all around; others were elliptical, or of long diamond form; many approached what we call the knife form, being long and narrow, thin and sharp, and inserted in a handle. Such an implement would be

1Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bul., No. 16, p. 49-53; No. 41, pp. 378379; No. 50, p. 255; Morgan, "League," p. 358.

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bul., No. 16, p. 15.

useful alike in war, in hunting, and in many other activities of daily life.

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Side by side with the knife in the scale of importance, stands the axe. This also was a tool whose services were needed at one stage or another of almost every branch of production. The axe, or celt, one of the few polished stone articles made by the Iroquois, was a piece of hard sandstone, greenstone, or slate,1 chipped and polished into the shape of an ordinary hatchet or wedge, round and blunt at one end, and with a broad cutting edge at the other. Often" says Lafitau,2 “the life time of a savage was not long enough for its completion; whence it comes that such an article, though still rude and imperfect, was a precious heritage for the children." The putting on of the handle was, in itself, no small task. One must choose a young tree," Lafitau goes on to tell us," and without cutting it down, make a handle of it. One cuts it in one end and there inserts the stone; the tree grows, presses it tight, and so incorporates it in its trunk that it is rare and difficult to remove it." At this stage of growth the tree was cut down and the axe and its wooden handle were carved out, ready for use. Sometimes, however, the handle seems to have been put on by quicker and more artificial methods; the orifice of the only ancient handle now in possession of the New York State Museum has evidently been finished, at least, by fire.3 Mr. Morgan says that a deep groove was cut around the small end of the hatchet, by means of which it was firmly attached to the handle with a withe or thong. This statement, however, does not seem to be well founded, either upon historical or archeological evidence. Instead of the groove, the device of roughening the stone near the blunt end was adopted by the Iroquois, in order to give the handle a firm grip. These axes were used to fell trees, to cut fire-wood, and for other work of the sort. Fire was generally employed to do the first part of the work, the stone tool being used to chip away the charred wood. We learn from

1

Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bul., No. 18, pp. II sq.

2 Lafitau, II, IIO.

3 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bul., No. 18, p. 12.

4 Morgan, “League,” p. 359.