IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 29 



ing. The office of speaker belonged of course to a man but other 

 offices were held by women. 



The address to the Creator as given by Morgan, follows : 



Great Spirit, 'W'*ho dwellest alone, listen now to the words of thy 

 people here assembled. The smoke of our offering arises. Give 

 kind attention to our words, as they arise to thee in the smoke. We 

 thank thee for this return of the planting season. Give us a good 

 season, that our crops may be plentiful. 



Continue to listen, for the smoke yet arises. [Throwing on 

 tobacco] Preserve us from all pestilential disease. Give strength to 

 us that we may not fall. Preserve our old men among us and pro- 

 tect the young. 



Help us to celebrate with feeling the ceremony of this season. 

 Guide the minds of thy people, that they may remember thee in all 

 their actions, na-ho.^ 



.Earlier in the spring the Thunder dance was held to honor He"- 

 no*^ Ti'sot, Thunder, our grandfather. He was asked to remember 

 the fields with a proper amount of rain and prevent the maize fields 

 from parching. If rain failed to come another Thunder ceremony 

 might be held.^ 



Cornfields were not always owned by the tribe or clan. Indi- 

 viduals might freely cultivate their own fields^ if they were willing 

 to do their share in the tribal fields. If they did not do this they 

 could not claim their share of the communal harvest. Individual 

 fields were designated by a post on which was painted' the clan totem 

 and individual name sign. Any distressed clansman, however, might 

 claim a right in the individual field and take enough to relieve his 

 wants, provided be notified the owner. 



The first hoeing* is called de'owenye', and takes place when the 

 corn is a span high. The second and final hoeing is called the hilling 

 up, eye"'o"' or hadiye"s', and is called for when the corn is knee 

 high. 



3 Communal customs. The women of a community who own 

 individual fields and their husbands or male friends may form a 



1 Morgan. League, p. 196. 



^Ibid. p. 196-97. 



3 C/. Margry 1:123; Jesuit Relations, 52:165. 



4 "The Indians used to give it one or two weedings, and make a hill about 

 it, and so the labor was done." Beverly. Hist, of Virginia. Ed. 2. p. 125-28. 

 Lond. 1722. 



