Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/418

When large pickets were required for a palisade, David Cusick said, "They set fire against several trees as required to make a fort and the stone axes are used to rub off the coals, as to burr quicker; when the tree burns down they put fires to it about three paces apart and burns it down in half a day." With a host of people this became a frolic, and such it is yet. I was recently on the Onondaga reservation on a winter day. The men were busy getting in the year's supply of wood. First they chopped for one family, and then for another. When the logs were drawn home—for they do not cut it in short lengths in the woods—the men met from house to house, and cut it up for the stove. In the woods and at home they had a merry time.

The women carried the burdens, but not in all cases. When Chaumonot and Menard went from Onondaga to Oneida in 1656, at nightfall in the forest the chief addressed his band as usual. "He also made a speech complimentary to the women, who were carrying the provisions of the journey, praising their courage and constancy." On many occasions the men carried quite as much. This depended on circumstances. When the town of Onondaga was removed six miles in 1682, jean de Lamberville said, "This is not done without difficulty; for inasmuch as carts are not used here and the country is very hilly, the labor of the men and women, who carry their goods on their backs, is consequently harder and of longer duration. To supply the lack of horses the inhabitants of these forests render reciprocal aid to one another, so that a single family will hire sometimes eighty or one hundred persons." The burden strap across the forehead, the basket or back frame behind, all aided much.

While wives often accompanied their husbands on the war party or in embassies, this was only when the journey was much of it by water. Ordinarily they were at home, though sometimes helping in the hunting camps. Thus the care of the fields naturally fell to them. Corn, pumpkins, and beans were easily raised, and required no great care at any time. The ears of corn were neatly braided and hung in long festoons, within and without the cabins, as is done to this day. Rushes and corn-husks formed mats, the customary resting-places. "On my mat" was a well known hospitable phrase. Pumpkins were dried, and thus were ready for use at any time. Beans entered into many things, and are yet an ingredient of Indian corn bread. All these gave origin to various phrases applicable to female industry, indoors and out. In the old Mohawk tongue, Asennonte was a little sack attached to the girdle, in which the women carried their seed corn. Onárate was the wooden hoe, to which the poorer Indians long adhered. The native weeds were not hard to subdue, and of many modern pests they knew nothing.