an armful of fuel. There was often a feast of the relatives, or of the
whole village. ]

Once a mother, and married with a reasonable permanency, the Huron woman
from a wanton became a drudge. In March and April she gathered the
year's supply of firewood. Then came sowing, tilling, and harvesting,
smoking fish, dressing skins, making cordage and clothing, preparing
food. On the march it was she who bore the burden; for, in the words of
Champlain, "their women were their mules." The natural effect followed.
In every Huron town were shrivelled hags, hideous and despised, who,
in vindictiveness, ferocity, and cruelty, far exceeded the men.

To the men fell the task of building the houses, and making weapons,
pipes, and canoes. For the rest, their home-life was a life of leisure
and amusement. The summer and autumn were their seasons of serious
employment,--of war, hunting, fishing, and trade. There was an
established system of traffic between the Hurons and the Algonquins of
the Ottawa and Lake Nipissing: the Hurons exchanging wampum, fishing-nets,
and corn for fish and furs. [ Champlain (1627), 84. ] From various
relics found in their graves, it may be inferred that they also traded
with tribes of the Upper Lakes, as well as with tribes far southward,
towards the Gulf of Mexico. Each branch of traffic was the monopoly of
the family or clan by whom it was opened. They might, if they could,
punish interlopers, by stripping them of all they possessed, unless the
latter had succeeded in reaching home with the fruits of their trade,--in
which case the outraged monopolists had no further right of redress,
and could not attempt it without a breaking of the public peace, and
exposure to the authorized vengeance of the other party. [ Brebeuf,
Relation des Hurons, 1636, 168 (Cramoisy). ] Their fisheries, too,
were regulated by customs having the force of laws. These pursuits,