OF THE nUMAX FAMILY. 1(55 



and constant intermarriage, this diversity has been maintained to the present time." 

 On the other hand, the rehitionship of aunt, applied and restricted to the father's 

 sister, is found in the system of the Tuscaroras and Wyandotes. In the former it 

 is A/d-Jiaw'-mc, in the hitter Ah-rd'-hoc, which are evidently the Seneca AJi-(ja'-huc 

 dialectically changed. This fact suggests the question, before stated, whether the 

 Wyandotes, Tuscaroras, and Senecas, are not more immediately connected, geneti- 

 cally, than the Senecas and other Iroquois nations. The Tuscarora and Wyandote 

 dialects are much further removed from the Seneca than the latter is from those of 

 the remaining nations ; but it is possible that this may be explained by the long 

 separation of the former from the Iroquois, which would tend to increase the 

 variation, whilst the constant association of the Senecas with their confederates 

 would tend to retard their dialectical separation. It is one thing to borrow a term 

 of relationship and substitute it in the place of a domestic term of equivalent 

 import, but quite a different undertaking to change an established relationship and 

 invent a new term for its designation. The first might occur and not be extraordi- 

 nary, but the latter would be much less likely to happen. Among the traditions 

 of the Senecas there is one to the effect that they had a distinct and independent 

 history anterior to the epoch of their confederation with the other Iroquois nations. 

 This feature in their system of relationship, and Avhich is shared by the Tuscaroras 

 and Wyandotes, and not by their immediate associates, tends to confirm the tradi- 

 tion, as Avell as to suggest the inference that the Senecas, Tuscaroras, and Wyan- 

 dotes, were of immediate common origin. It has been referred to, not so much 

 for its intrinsic importance as for the illustration which it furnishes of the uses of 

 systems of consanguinity and affinity for minute ethnological investigations through 

 periods of time far beyond the range of historical records 



7. Two Mountain Iroquois. 



The location and antecedents of this fragment of the Iroquois stock were 

 referred to in the early part of this chapter. Their system agrees substantially 

 with that of the Oneidas and Mohawks ; and is chiefly interesting as an illustration 

 of the ability of the system to perpetuate itself in disconnected branches of the 

 same stock. - 



' Descent amongst the Iroquois is in the female line both as to tribe and as to nationality. The 

 children are of the tribe of the mother. If a Cayuga marries a Delaware woman, for example, his 

 children are Delawares and aliens, unless formally naturalized with the forms of adojition : but if a 

 Delaware marries a Cayuga woman, her children are Cayugas, and of her tribe of the Cayugas. It 

 is the same if she marries a Seneca. In all cases the woman confers her tribe and nationalitj' upon 

 her children. She will also adhere to the Cayuga system of relationship on the point under con- 

 sideration. For seventy years the Cayugas, still living in Western New York, have resided with 

 the Senecas, and constantly intermarried with them ; but they still retain their dialect, tribes, nation- 

 ality, and relationships. In 1858 I asked a Cayuga woman on one of the Seneca reservations in 

 what relationship her father's sister stood to her. She replied, " My mother." I e-xpressed a doubt 

 of her correctness, but she adhered to her answer. She gave me the Seneca name for aunt in the 

 Cayuga dialect, but denied the relationship. I afterwards found the same deviation from the Seneca 

 form amongst the Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks. 



^ There are Mohawks, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Cayugas now residing upon the Thames River in 

 Canada West. Besides these, there are Oneidas and Onondagas near Green Bay in Wisconsin, and 

 also Senecas in Kansas. The Iroquois in New York now number about 4000. 



