IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 63 



the lazy could avail themselves of the stores of the more fortunate 

 and the more energetic. Neither begging nor laziness were encour- 

 aged, however, and the slightest indication of an imposition was 

 rebuked in a stern manner. 



Heckewelder explains this law of hospitality in a forcible manner. 

 '' They think that he (the Great Spirit), made the earth and all that 

 it contains," he writes,^ " that when he stocked the country that 

 he gave them with plenty of game, it wias not for the benefit of the 

 few, but for all." This idea that the Creator gave of his bounty 

 for the good of the entire body of people was one of the funda- 

 mental laws of the Iroquois. As air and rain were common so was 

 everything else to be. Heckewelder expresses this when he con- 

 tinues, *' Everything was given in common to the sons of men. 

 Whatever liveth on land, whatsoever groweth out of the earth, and 

 all that is in the rivers and waters flowing through the same, was 

 given jointly to all, and every one is entitled to his share. From 

 this principle hospitality flows as from its source. With them it 

 was not a virtue but a strict duty; hence they are never in search of 

 excuses to avoid giving, but freely supply their neighbors' wants 

 from the stock prepared for their own use. They give and are 

 hospitable to all without exception and will always share with each 

 other and often with the stranger to the last morsel. They would 

 rather lie down themselves on an empty stomach than have it laid to 

 their charge that they had neglected their duty by not satisfying the 

 wants of the stranger, the sick or the needy. The stranger has a 

 claim to their hospitality, partly on account of his being at a distance 

 from his family and friends, and partly because he has honored them 

 with his visit and ought to leave them with a good impression on 

 his mind ; the sick and the poor because they have a right to be 

 helped out of the common stock, for if the meat they are served 

 with was taken from the woods it was common to all before the 

 hunter took it; if corn and vegetables, it had grown out of the com- 

 mon ground, yet not by the power of men but by that of the Great 

 Spirit." 



When distinguished guests came into a community a great feast 

 was prepared for them. Various French, Dutch and English 

 writers who visited the Iroquois during the colonial period have 

 written of these feasts and some of them describe the feasts in 

 a vivid way. Sometimes the food was unpalatable to European 



1 Heckewelder. Indian Nations, p. loi. 



