Tookerl ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE HURON 31 



Warfare between the Indians was so intense that the women, espe- 

 cially on the frontiers, could not till the ground and raise corn unless 

 they had with them at all times a man with weapons to protect them 

 (S 164). The Iroquois, however, did not usually come to make war 

 on the Huron except when the trees were covered with leaves. At this 

 time of year they could conceal themselves more easily, especially as 

 there was much forest in the country, most of it near the villages 

 (S162). 



"When war was declared, all the villages near the frontiers were 

 destroyed if they were incapable of holding back the enemy. To 

 prevent this, some villages were fortified, each man going to such a 

 place and building new houses with the help of the inhabitants of 

 the village. The chiefs, assisted by the members of their council, 

 worked without ceasing to make the place capable of being held. 

 If any additions to the fortifications were deemed necessary, they had 

 them made. They had every house swept and all the soot and spiders 

 cleaned out for fear of fire which the enemy might cause by means 

 of certain devices learned from some other nation. They got stones 

 and water carried to the watch towers. Many dug holes in which they 

 put their most precious possessions. Some warriors were sent out to 

 ascertain the whereabouts of the enemy while others were encouraged 

 to make weapons and otherwise prepare themselves to defend the 

 village. Each village made similar preparations until it became ob- 

 vious what villages the enemy was going to attack. Then, if there 

 was no necessity for a large army, a number of warriors in the other 

 neighboring villages went at night with little noise to give them aid, 

 shutting themselves into the besieged town to help defend it (S 155- 

 156). 



TORTURE OF PRISONERS 



The Huron took prisoners in war to burn and then eat ( JR 19 : 81) . 

 Such captives might be distributed to different villages or nations 

 ( JR 15 : 171 ; 17 : 73 ; 23 : 33) and given to those who had lost relatives 

 to the enemy (JR 17: 101; 23: 33). A prisoner might be given to a 

 distant tribe (JR 17: 111). They seldom put to death women and 

 children, but kept some for themselves or made presents of them to 

 those who had previously lost some of their own in war. They made 

 much of these substitutes, as if they were actually their own children. 

 When the captives grew up, they went to war against their own 

 parents and men of their nation as bravely as if they had been born 

 enemies of their own country. If the warriors were unable to carry 

 off the women and children they had captured, they put them to death 

 and carried off the heads or the hairy scalp. It happened, but rarely, 

 that after they had been carried back, they were tortured to death. 

 The tears of these tortured women did not move the torturers; men 



