The league of the Iroquois and other legends : from the Indian muse

304 NOTES.
pose, so very miserable, nor, relatively, so very abject ;
she is sure of protection ;
sure of maintenance, at least while the inau has it ;
sure of kind treatment ;
sure
that she will uever have her children taken from her but by death ;
sees uoue
better off than herself, and it is evident that in such a state the appointed and
necessary share of the woman is the household work, and all other domestic
labors." Mus. JAMISON, in Winter Studies and Summer Rambles.
From unpublished notes by the late Mr. W. H. Clarke, of Chicago, whose
acquaintance with leading Indians of the West extended over many years, I am
permitted to make some extracts. He was well acquainted with Mrs. Schoolcraft,
to whom the world is greatly indebted for her praiseworthy efforts to preserve
the legendary lore of the Indians. Herself of Indian lineage, and spending
the greater part of a long life among her people, her statements cannot but be
taken as trustworthy.
In answer to questions as to the condition of the Indian women, she " said, It
was better than that of the white woman, taking into consideration the differences
between the races. That is to say, although on account of many inevitable
causes, the Indian woman is subjected to many hardships of a physical nature,
yet her position, compared to that of man, is higher and freer than that of the
white woman."
"OMriC. !" said she, "why will they look only upon one side? they either
exalt the Red Man into a demi-god, or degrade him into a beast. They say he
compels his wife to do all the drudgery, while he does nothing but hunt and
amuse himself ; forgetting that upon his activity and powers of endurance as a
liuuter depends the support of his family."
Note 23. " She is of my noble people Page 66.
Ongue Honwe that is well."
The term, ONGUE HONWE, a people surpassing all others that the Iroquois
proudly applied to themselves, being older than the discovery of the continent
by Europeans, did not refer to them ;
but denoted a people surpassing all other
red men. In that sense it was probably strictly true.
Note 24. " No garden lilies undefiled, Page 72.
No sweets their fragrance may possess,
Surpass the roses of the wild
The beauty of the wilderness."
Had not the writer, in his casual intercourse with the Indians, seen among
them maidens of surpassing beauty, comparing favorably with the most lovely
maidens of the White Race, he would hardly have ventured to give expression to
what will probably seem to many as existing only in the pictures of an exalted
imagination.
Fredrika Bremer, in her Homes of the New World, says of an Indian maiden
she saw in Minnesota : "She was so brilliant and of such unusual beauty that
she literally seemed to light up the whole room as she entered. Her shoulders
were broad and round, and her carriage drooping, as is usual with Indian women,