124 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



it made water. If the child, was a girl, a leaf of corn was arranged 

 upside down which served to carry the water outside without soiling 

 the child. A very soft down of a kind of reed which was cleaned with 

 the same down (or with the powder of dry rotten Avood) was used in 

 place of diapers (C 141 ; S 129) . 



At night, the child slept quite naked between the father and mother 

 (C 141-142 ;S 129). 



Children were left naked in the lodge and, even when older, rolled, 

 ran about, and played both in the snow and during the hottest days 

 in summer (S 130) . 



They did not obey their parents and were not punished for any 

 fault. Everyone lived in complete freedom and did what he thought 

 fit. Parents failed to correct their children and often suffered wrong- 

 doing at their hands, sometimes being beaten and flouted to their face 

 (C 142; S 130-131). 2^ 



YOUTH 



The usual and daily practice of the boys was to shoot their bows and 

 arrows. They also played a game with curved sticks, making them 

 slide over the snow, and with a ball of light wood, as is done in 

 France. They learned to throw the prong with which fish are speared 

 and practiced other S]Dorts and exercises. They returned to the house 

 at meal times or when they felt hungry. If a mother asked her son 

 to go for water or wood or do similar household work, he replied that 

 this was girl's work and did none of it.-^ Some mischievous boys de- 

 lighted in cutting the cord that held up the door of the Recollects' 

 house so that it fell when one opened it, but they denied doing it and 

 took flight (S 132). 



As boys had their special training and taught one another to shoot 

 with the bow as soon as they began to walk, so the little girls had 

 a small stick put into their hands to train and teach them early to 



^ This comment reflects a difference in child-training methods between the Iroquolans 

 (and North American Indians, in general) and Europeans (and White Americans), a 

 difference which has also been noted by more recent observers (as Randle 1951: 170), 

 although their statements are not as extreme, and punishment, especially by using cold 

 water, is mentioned (Jackson 1830 b : 19 ; Parker 1913 : 33 n. ; Shimony 1961 a : 209- 

 210). The difference in emphasis probably rests ultimately on different attitudes toward 

 the child : Indians tending to view the child as an individual with its own rights, needs, 

 etc., and those of Western civilization tending to view the child as an unformed creature 

 that must be molded by admonition and force into a human being. This difference is 

 apparent in many ways. One such Is that among Indians, learning tends to be by 

 example rather than by formal Instruction, a difference that has struck many observers. 

 For example. It is reflected in Fenton's (1957: 33) statement, "What always amazes me, 

 however. Is to return to an Iroquois community and see a comparative youngster rise 

 in the speaker's place without prolonged training under the older men." 



28 Iroquois boys still play games and do some hunting and trapping (Shimony 1961 a: 

 214-215). Although they rarely now arc assigned tasks by their mothers, their grand- 

 mothers are apt to give them tasks (Randle 1951 : 178). They now chop wood and fetch 

 water (Shimony 1961 a: 215), a change that is probably part of the general change In 

 tasks of men and women. This change began at the end of the 18th century when 

 men took up agricultural pursuits, traditionally the occupation of Iroquois women. 



