a useful lesson.  When he returns from hunting, worn out with, fatigue, having tasted nothing since dawn, his wife, if she is a good wife, will take off his moccasons and replace them with dry ones, and will prepare his game for their repast, while his children will climb upon him, and he will caress them, with all the tenderness of a woman; and in the evening the Indian wigwam is the scene of the purest domestic pleasures.  The father will relate, for the amusement of the wife and for the instruction of the children, all the events of the day’s hunt, while they will treasure up every word that falls, and thus learn the theory of the art whose practice is to be the occupation of their lives.”

Mrs. Grant speaks thus of the position of woman amid the Mohawk Indians:—­

“Lady Mary Montague says, that the court of Vienna was the paradise of old women, and that there is no other place in the world where a woman past fifty excites the least interest.  Had her travels extended to the interior of North America, she would have seen another instance of this inversion of the common mode of thinking.  Here a woman never was of consequence, till sire had a son old enough to fight the battles of his country.  From, that date she held a superior rank in society; was allowed to live at ease, and even called to consultations on national affairs.  In savage and warlike countries, the reign of beauty is very short, and its influence comparatively limited.  The girls in childhood had a very pleasing appearance; but excepting their fine hair, eyes, and teeth, every external grace was soon banished by perpetual drudgery, carrying burdens too heavy to be borne, and other slavish employments, considered beneath the dignity of the men.  These walked before, erect and graceful, decked with ornaments which set off to advantage the symmetry of their well-formed persons, while the poor women followed, meanly attired, bent under the weight of the children and the utensils, which they carried everywhere with, them, and disfigured and degraded by ceaseless toils.  They were very early married, for a Mohawk had no other servant but his wife; and whenever he commenced hunter, it was requisite he should have some one to carry his load, cook his kettle, make his moccasons, and, above all, produce the young warriors who were to succeed him in the honors of the chase and of the tomahawk.  Wherever man is a mere hunter, woman is a mere slave.  It is domestic intercourse that softens man, and elevates woman; and of that there can be but little, where the employments and amusements are not in common.  The ancient Caledonians honored the fair; but then it is to be observed, they were fair huntresses, and moved in the light of their beauty to the hill of roes; and the culinary toils were entirely left to the rougher sex.  When the young warrior made his appearance, it softened the cares of his mother, who well knew that, when he grew up, every deficiency in tenderness