Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/431

at councils now. At one to which I was invited in Canada last year, there was a goodly number of women present, but only chiefs spoke.

Perhaps from this pacific influence may have come the story of a peaceful female monarch, usually much changed from the form in which David Cusick gave it. The ultimate origin was in the relation in which the Neutral nation stood to the Iroquois and Hurons, freely sheltering both alike. According to Cusick, "a queen, named Yagowanea, resided at the fort Kauhanauka," now on the Tuscarora reservation. She had much influence, and the war between the Five Nations and Missasaugas "was regulated under her control. The queen lived outside the fort in a long house, which was called a peace house. She entertained the two parties who were at war with each other; indeed, she was called the mother of the nations. Each nation sent her a belt of wampum as a mark of respect," but she betrayed the Iroquois, was herself conquered, and sued for peace. There have been fanciful additions to this.

In one notable instance a woman caused a war, instead of preventing it, by a stubborn assertion of her rights. The Onondaga chief, Anñenraes, had been taken by the Eries in 1654. Hoping to avert war, they gave him to the sister of one who had been slain, thinking she would gladly accept him. She came home while they were treating him handsomely; and demanded that he should be put to death. In vain did the chiefs plead with her and show the terrible consequences to her nation. She wept and protested, and insisted on his torture. Public safety yielded to her woman's right. The captive died and the Eries perished.

While Iroquois women rarely restrained their children, they had much affection for them. One story told of them by the Hurons has no foundation. In 1640 the latter said that the Iroquois "sometimes take a new-born child, pierce it with arrows, and cast it into the fire. The flesh having been consumed, they take the bones which they grind to powder; and when they wish to go to war, they drink a little of this powder, believing that this beverage increases their courage. They.also make use of these ashes for their lots and other superstitions." The mother was rewarded for her patriotic sacrifice. The only truth in this is the ceremonial use of ashes.

The Onondagas have always used vegetable poisons, and the poisoning was sometimes ascribed to witches, but the venom was as often taken intentionally. The Relation of 1657 takes note of this. "They kill themselves by eating certain venomous herbs that they know to be a poison, which the married women much more often use to avenge themselves for the bad treatment of their husbands, leaving them thus the reproach of their death." Pursh said that in 1807 Cicuta maculata was much used by the Onondagas as a poison.