STATUS OF IROQUOIS WOMAN HEWITT 483 



circumstances adverse to the Iroquois, Gen. James Clinton, com- 

 manding the New York division of the Sullivan punitive expedi- 

 tion in 1779, with orders to disperse the hostile Iroquois and to de- 

 stroy their homes, paid his enemies the high tribute of a brave 

 soldier by writing in April, 1779, to his lieutenant, Colonel Van 

 Schaick, then leading his troops against the Onondaga and their 

 villages, the following terse compliment : " Bad as these savages are, 

 they never violate the chastity of any woman, their prisoner." And 

 he added this signijEicant admonition to his colonel, " It would be 

 well to take measures to prevent a stain upon our army." 



The woman trustee chieftainess was selected from the other eligible 

 women of her ohwachira because of her outstanding intelligence, her 

 marked ability, her stability of character, and of the spotless purity 

 of her life ; indeed, she was chosen because she embodied in her per- 

 son the ideal virtues of a perfect, wholesome woman — kind, indus- 

 trious, intelligent, loyal, and pure in thought and action. 



In a portion of the obsolescent story relating to the mother of 

 Deganawida, the founder and organizer of the League of the Iro- 

 quois, fortunately recovered during the past year by the writer, 

 there occur certain traditional passages of remarkable value and 

 significance. 



In this precious fragment of early Iroquois tradition the mother 

 of Deganawida bears the noteworthy name, Djigo''^sd^'see\ This 

 name was peculiarly personal to her; it was designed to express a 

 superlative endowment of the noblest attributes characterizing a 

 wholesome womanhood. Its implicit signification is "A face doubly 

 new, pure, and spotless "; i, e., "A face new, pure, and spotless in a 

 superlative degree," exceeding in these attributes the face of a newly 

 born babe. Such was the highly expressive face of the virgin mother 

 of Deganawida as apprehended by the poet annalists of Iroquois 

 tradition. This was, indeed, an apotheosis of womanhood, of mother- 

 hood. Such high encomium of wholesome motherhood could have 

 found expression only in a soil and atmosphere enriched by the best 

 in thought and striving of Iroquois womanhood. 



In the preceding paragraphs of this study it has been the purpose 

 to show that the spirit of these high encomiums of Iroquois woman 

 \)y her own people was not spent in flattering lip service, but that 

 it was wisely and firmly embodied in the most vital institutions of 

 the Iroquois commonwealth. 



Furthermore, the tradition mentioned above recites the fact that 

 the mother of Deganawida was the daughter of a very poor woman 

 who dwelt apart in indigent circumstances. The birth of this daugh- 

 ter was accompanied by an auspicious omen; she was born with a 

 caul, and in accordance with contemporary beliefs, she was destined 

 149571—33 32 



