MORGAN.| HOUSES OF THE NYACKS OF LONG ISLAND. 119 
descent, as father and mother with their offspring. Their bread is maize 
pounded on a block by a stone, but not fine. This is mixed with water 
and made into a cake, which they bake under the hot ashes. They gave us 
a small piece when we entered, and although the grains were not ripe, and 
it was half baked and coarse grains, we nevertheless had to eat it, or, at 
least, not throw it away before them, which they would have regarded as a 
great sin, or a great affront.” 
There is nothing in these statements forbidding the supposition that 
the household described practiced communism in livmg. The composition 
of the household shows that it was formed on the principle of gentile kin, 
while the several families cooked at the different fires, which was the usual 
practice in the different tribes; the stores were probably common, and the 
household under a matron, It will be noticed also that they gave him 
maize bread when he first entered the house. He little supposed that it 
was in obedience to a law or usage universal in the Indian family. 
Fig. ig ose is sete of ROC 
During the greater part of the year the Iroquois resided in villages. 
The size of the village was estimated by the number of the houses, and 
the size of the house by the number of fires it contained. One of the 
largest of the Seneca-Iroquois villages, situated at Mendon, near Rochester, 
N. Y., is thus described by Mr. Greenbalgh, who visited it in 1677: “"Tio- 
tohatton is on the brink or edge of a hill, has not much cleared ground, is 
near the river Tiotohatton [outlet of Honeoye Lake], whicl 
1 signifies bending. 
‘ Journal, ete., p. 124. 
