596 IROQUOIAN COSMOLOGY [eth. ann.43 



things which we have had mentioned to-day in the ways in which 

 He formed them, verily, the time has now come when we should 

 form clans which should exist. The reason that we should thus do, 

 is that now, verily, we have become numerous, so then, we should 

 now apportion the body of people; and that, then, that there should 

 be only a certain nimiber of clans, that they should continue to call 

 themselves brothers and cousins in the days that are to come in the 

 future and that that should be used to follow this course so long as 

 our uterine families (ohwachira) continue to exist. So then, there 

 it should become the chief means, among those we shall employ in 

 what is now befalling us in that we are more widely separating our- 

 selves one from another. So then, thus it should continue to be, 

 where it will cause one to lose out of the respective uterine families 

 (ohwachira). That the entii-e Sisterhood should have that one thing 

 befall it,** and that, at that time, the mind of the opposite Sisterhood 

 of people would be virgin and then they, this entire Sisterhood, 

 shall arise and they all shall go thither to the place where one has 

 been lost to one. Now, they shall utter words which are mellow, 

 they shall repeatedly cheer up their minds and they shall encouiage 

 their minds, that theu- minds should not be carried away thereby; 

 and that shall result in good, that they should become settled (com- 

 forted) whose persons have become enshrouded in darlcness. 



"So then, you Elder Ones have your responsible duty to consider 

 this matter fully, whether you will choose that it shall be like them, in 

 that they shall be different one from another, as are those things 

 which I have mentioned; it is, verily, evident that there are clans 

 (kindreds) of grasses, also of shrubs, also of trees, also of game. Now, 

 then, you have learned all the things, as they are, on which I person- 

 ally have meditated. Now, then, I personally have been able to pro- 

 pose something for us to do only to this point. So now then the whole 

 matter rests with you. " 



At that time, now, they, the Elder Ones, and also the entire body 

 of people, marveled at the kind of ideas which he (the young man) 

 had put forth. At that time, now, they, exercising serious care, con- 

 sidered the matter, repeatedly. After the lapse of some time, they 

 arrived at an agreement that they would accept the proposition, and 

 they confirmed the matter in the manner in which he set it forth, that 

 the entire body of people should be divided into parts, that there 

 should be divers clans. 



So then, this custom shall be in vogue ; no matter in which Sistei'hood 

 of kmdreds the loss may occur, the minds of the other Sisterhood will 

 then be prime and shall be responsible for the entire matter; they shall 

 carefully attend to all those things which must take place there; so 

 then, it shall be their duty to speak, they shall encourage the minds of 



See note on p. 6U. 



