46 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
civilized life, took the position of housekeeper. The old man, referring to 
the ancient custom, requested his daughter to keep the usual food con- 
stantly prepared ready to offer to any person who entered their house, saying 
that he did not wish to see this custom of their forefathers laid aside. Their 
changed condition, and particularly the adoption of the regular meals of 
civilized society, for the time of which the visitor might reasonably be 
expected to wait, did not in his mind outweigh the sanctity of the custom. 
In July, 1743, John Bartram made a journey from Philadelphia to 
Onondaga to attend, with Conrad Weisar, a council of the Onondaga, Mo- 
hawk, Oneida, and Cayuga chiefs. At Shamokin he quartered with a 
trader who had an Indian wife, and at a village of the Delawares. ‘As 
soon as we alighted,” he remarks, “they showed us where to lay our lug- 
gage, and then brought us a bowl of boiled squashes, cold. This I then 
thought poor entertainment, but before I came back I had learned not to 
despise good Indian food. This hospitality is agreeable to the honest sim- 
plicity of ancient times, and is so persistently adhered te that not only what 
is already dressed is immediately set before a traveler, but the most press- 
ing business is postponed to prepare the best they can get for him, keeping 
it as a maxim that he must always be hungry. Of this we found the good 
effects in the flesh and bread they got ready for us.”” We have here a per- 
fect illustration among the Delawares of the Iroquois rule to set food before 
a person when he first entered the house. Although they had in this case 
nothing better than boiled squash to offer, it was done immediately, after 
_ which they commenced preparing a more substantial repast. Delaware and 
Iroquois usages were the same. 
The council at Onondaga lasted two days, at the close of which they 
had each day a dinner in common. ‘“ This council [first day] was followed 
by afeast. After four o’clock we all dined together upon four great kettles of 
Indian-corn soup, which we emptied, and then every chief retired to his 
home. * * * The conference [second day] held till three, after which 
we dined. The repast consisted of three great kettles of Indian-corn soup, 
or thin hominy, with dried eels and other fish boiled in it, and one kettle 
1William Parker was the chief named, a noble specimen of a Seneca Iroquois. 
2 Bartram’s Obseryations, &c., London edition, 1751, p. 16. 
