ury. I quote Mr. Morgan's
description at length, because his book is out of print and
hard to obtain. It ought to be republished, and in octavo, like
his _Ancient Society_, of which it is a continuation.]

"Over every such household a matron presided, whose duty it was to
supervise its domestic economy. After the single daily meal had been
cooked at the different fires within the house, it was her province to
divide the food from the kettle to the several families according to
their respective needs. What remained was placed in the custody of
another person until she again required it."[75]

[Footnote 75: Lucien Carr, "On the Social and Political
Position of Woman among the Huron-Iroquois Tribes," _Reports of
Peabody Museum_, vol. iii. p. 215.]

[Sidenote: Summary divorce.]

Not only the food was common property, but many chattels, including the
children, belonged to the gens or clan. When a young woman got married
she brought her husband home with her. Though thenceforth an inmate of
this household he remained an alien to her clan. "If he proved lazy and
failed to do his share of the providing, woe be to him. No matter how
many children, or whatever goods he might have in the house, he might at
any time be ordered to pick up his blanket and budge; and after such
orders it would not be healthful for him to disobey; the house would be
too hot for him; and unless saved by the intercession of some aunt or
grandmother [of his wife] he must retreat to his own clan, or, as was
often done, go and start a new matrimonial alliance in some other....
The female portion ruled the house."[76]

[Footnote 76: This was not incompatible with the subjection of
women to extreme drudgery and ill-treatment. For an instructive
comparison with the case among the tribes of the Far West, see
Dodge, _Our Wild Indians_, chap. xvi.]

[Sidenote: Hospitality.]

Though there was but one freshly-cooked meal, taken about the middle of
the day, any member of the household when hungry could be helped from
the common stock. Hospitality was universal. If a person from one of the
other communal households, or a stranger from another tribe (in time of
peace), were to visit the house, the women would immediately offer him
food, and it was a breach of etiquette to decline to eat it. This custom
was strictly observed all over the continent and in the West India
Isl