The Life of Primitive Woman 



1701 



While Tawaragat is talking]; to his wife and looking around the plan- 

 tation followed by the children, the white men sit down beside the old 

 chief. He is the representative of the Wolf clan of Cayugas to the Onon- 

 daga Council of the Six Nations. It is to this council that Weiser is bound 

 as an envoy with gifts from Governor Gooch of Virginia and President 

 Logan of Pennsylvania, who are desirous of establishing peace between 

 the allied Six Nations of the North (Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, 

 Mohawks, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras) and the Cherokees and the Catawbas 

 to the South, who are making trouble on their frontiers. 



The whole Cayuga village gradualh^ clusters about these men, and when 

 they fall to discussing the probable outcome of the embassy, Weiser slips 



Fig. 53. — The arrival of Conrad Weiser and Stoeffel Stump. 



century costumes 



Note the eighteenth 



away to the long house, where he has spied an old woman working at her 

 herb cleaning and bunching. To her he shows and then offers twenty- 

 four needles and six shoe strings, begging in return some Indian com 

 bread. She waddles off to bring this bread, and for five small loaves she 

 greedily takes the needles and the strings. By this time the Indian matrons 

 are ready with true Iroquois hospitality to offer food to their guests, and 

 all join in urging the strangers to remain in the village until their straw- 

 berry thanksgiving festival has been celebrated. The hunters, who have 

 meanwhile returned laden with game, have heard the news from Tawara- 

 gat and join heartily in offering a friendly welcome. (The game was 

 brought into the village by the hunters on this occasion, for it was meant 

 for the use of the whole community. Othenvise, they would have had to 



