' THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Hou 
now known as the State of Kentucky,* where they seem to have taken 
refuge after their expulsion from the region south of the lakes by the 
Triquois.t Among all these nations corn was cultivated in quantities, 
and was preserved in caches.t The field work seems to have been left 
to the women§ and slaves. There was also a class of boys or men who 
were employed only in women’s work, and who did not take part either 
in war or hunting. It is possible that they were simply captives or 
slaves, though upon this point the evidence is conflicting.|| It is cer- 
* Life of Father Marquette, p. 56, and also p. 41 of his Narrative, both in Shea’s 
Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi. In the old maps, the Cumberland is 
put down as the river of the Chaouanons. 
tColden (Five Nations, pp. 23 and 25: London, 1767) says the Shawnees, or, as he 
calls them, the Satanas, formerly lived on the banks of the lakes, and that they 
were the first people against whom the Five Nations turned their arms, after their 
defeat and expulsion from the region near Montreal by the Adirondacks. There is 
reason to believe that this took place in the latter part of the sixteenth century. 
¢ “The soil is good, producing much corn,” p. 14. - - - “They live - - - on 
Indian corn, of which they always gather a good crop, so that they have never suf- 
fered by famine,” p. 33 of Narrative of Marquette. ‘‘They live on Indian corn and 
other fruits of the earth, which they cultivate on the prairies like other Indians:” 
Narrative of Father Allouez, p. 75. ‘The richness of their country gives them fields 
everywhere:” Narrative of Father Membré, p. 151. All these are published in the 
Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi by John Gilmary Shea: New York, 1852. 
“This is a place of great trade for skins and Indian corn, which these savages sell to 
the Coureurs de Bois:” La Hontan, Voyages 1, p. 105: London, 1703. See also Me- 
mow of Tonti, l. ¢., p. 54. 
§ Joutel, p. 187. Kips, Missions, p. 38. Father Marest, in note to p. 25 of Shea’s 
Discovevy and Exploration of the Mississippi. There is room however for doubt 
on this point, as Charlevoix (Letters, p. 293: London, 1763) speaks of the Illinois as 
cultivating the land after their fashion and as being very laborious; and in Haw- 
kins’ Sketch of the Creek Country, p. 34, we are told that ‘‘the Shawnees,” some of 
whom, at that time, lived among the Creeks, ‘‘ were very industrious, worked with 
the women, and made plenty of corn.” 
|| Father Membré, p. 151. Marquette, p. 34, says: ‘‘Through what superstition I 
know not, some Illinois as well as some Nadougssi, while yet young, assume the 
female dress, and keep it all their life. There is some mystery about it, for they 
never marry, and glory in debasing themselves to do all that is done by women; yet 
they go to war, though allowed to use only a club, and not the bow and arrow, the 
peculiar arm of the men; they are present at all juggleries and solemn dances in 
honor of the calumet; they are permitted to sing, but not to dance; they attend the 
councils, and nothing can be decided without their advice; finally, by the profes- 
sion of an extraordinary life, they pass for manitous (that is, for genii) or persons 
of consequence.” Compare Lafitau, vol. 1, pp. 52 and 53, and Lawson’s Carolina, p. 
208. Father Membré, /. c., Hennepin, and La Hontan tell us that these men were 
reserved for an unnatural purpose, which, according to Charlevoix (Letters, p. 213) 
and Long (Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, vol. 1, p. 129: Philadelphia, 1823), 
may, have been a religious rite or the result of a dream. We are told that the cus- 
tom existed among the Choctaws, Delawares, and also among the Indians of Florida, 
though it is denied by Lawson, as far as the tribes of the Carolinas are concerned. It 
is said to prevail as a religious rite among some of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico; 
and Miss Alice C. Fletcher informs me that during her residence among the tribes of 
the Upper Missouri she saw one instance of aman so clothed, and this was caused 
by a dream. 
