86 TRANSACTIONS iSgg-'oo 



These features of property at lyorette and at Caughnawaga 

 and the diversity of the conditions of neighbourhood resulting 

 therefrom, will enable us to understand the sudden change of 

 front which presently takes place in the social advance of both 

 our types. 



At the start, we found that, taking into account the char- 

 acter of the country inhabited, the forms of labour resorted to, 

 fitness for steady work and ability to hold property, in short all 

 that makes up the means of living, the Iroquois was not to-day so 

 much of a savage as the Huron, had more than the latter adopted 

 the ways of his white neighbours. It seems that the parallel- 

 ism should continue throughout the whole social fabric. How- 

 ever such is not the case. 



As soon as we take to considering the home life, the family 

 traditions, the tongue spoken, the entire mode of living, then of 

 the two, it is the Huron we find to be, the most completely 

 assimilated to us ; it is the Iroquois we find keeping aloof in 

 many respects. That will be made clear hereafter. 



Family. 



The most striking feature of the family organization of the 

 ancient Hurons and of the ancient Iroquois, was female clanship. 

 The clans — numbering seven or eight among the Iroquois, and as 

 many or more among the Hurons — were vast groupings of people 

 founded on consanguinity, on a common origin. They were not 

 mere local organizations ; they were ramified throughout the 

 country. For instance the clan of the Bear, that of the Deer, or 

 that of the Tortoise, had adherents in all the villages, or at any 

 rate in all of the four nations which made up the Huron confed- 

 eracy. So that, while the people were, for purposes of livelihood, 

 dispersed in distant villages, and for political purposes, 

 broken up into nations, still they were held fast together by the 

 strong bond of the clan founded on family relationship. 



A peculiar character of the Huron-Iroquois clanship was 

 that it existed, and was transmitted, not through the men, but 

 through the women of the tribe or family. The Huron child did 

 not belong to the clan of his father, but to that of his mother. 

 In the same way, the possessions of a deceased Huron chief did 

 not go to his sons, but to his brothers, or to the sons of his 



