SOCIETY OF THE QUER'RANNA. 



The Society of the Quer'rauua has a reduced membership of three — 

 the ho'uaaite, vicar, and a woman; and there is at the present time a 

 novitiate, a boy of 5 years. Three generations are represented in this 

 society — father, son, and grandson. The elder man is one of the most 

 aged in Sia, and, though ho'naaite of the Quer'riinna and vicar of the 

 Society of Warriors, and reverenced by his people as being almost as 

 wise as the "Oracle," his family is the most destitute in Sia, being 

 composed, as it is, of noiiproducing members. His wife is an invalid ; his 

 eldest son, the vicar of the Quer'riinna Society, is a paralytic, and a 

 younger son is a trifling fellow. The third child is a daughter who has 

 been blind from infancy; she is the mother of two children, but has 

 never been married. The fourth child is a 10-year-old girl, whose time 

 is consumed in the care of the children of her blind sister, bringing 

 the water for family use, and grinding the corn (the mother and sister 

 occasionally assisting in the grinding) and preparing the meals, which 

 consist, with rare exceptions, of a bowl of mush. During the planting 

 and harvest times the father alone attends to the fields, which are their 

 main dependence ; and he seeks such employment as can be procured 

 from his people, and in this way exchanges labor for food. Every 

 blanket of value has been traded for nourishment, until the family is 

 reduced to mere tatters for garments. For several years this family 

 has been on the verge of starvation, and the meagerness of food and 

 mental suftering tells the tale in the face of each member of the house- 

 hold, excepting the worthless fellow (who visits about the country, im- 

 posing upon his fi-iends). Even the little ones are more sedate than 

 the other children of the village. 



Nothing is done for this family by the clan. Close observation leads 

 the writer to believe that the same ties of clanship do not exist with 

 the Sia as with the other tribes. This, however, may be due to the 

 long continued struggle for subsistence. Fathers and mothers look 

 first to the needs of their children, then comes the child's interest in 

 I)arents, and brothers and sisters in one another. No lack of self-denial 

 is found in the family. 



The ho'naaite of the Quer'riinna is the only surviving member of the 

 Eagle clan, but his wife belongs to the Corn clan, and has a number of 

 connections. When the writer chided a woman of this clan for not 

 assisting the sufferers she replied: " I would help them if 1 could, but 

 we have not enough for ourselves," a confirmation of the opinion that 

 the clan is here secondary to the nearer ties of consanguinity. The 

 care of one's immediate family is obligatory; it is not so with the dan. 



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