If
it were possible to carry filial veneration to excess, it was done here;
for all other charities were absorbed in it. I wonder this system of
depressing the sex in their early years, to exalt them when all their
juvenile attractions were flown, and when mind alone can distinguish
them, has not occurred to our modern reformers. The Mohawks took good
care not to admit their women to share their prerogatives, till they
approved themselves good wives and mothers."
The observations of women upon the position of woman are always more
valuable than those of men; but, of these two, Mrs. Grant's seems much
nearer the truth than Mrs. Schoolcraft's, because, though her
opportunities for observation did not bring her so close, she looked
more at both sides to find the truth.
Carver, in his travels among the Winnebagoes, describes two queens, one
nominally so, like Queen Victoria; the other invested with a genuine
royalty, springing from her own conduct.
In the great town of the Winnebagoes, he found a queen presiding over
the tribe, instead of a sachem. He adds, that, in some tribes, the
descent is given to the female line in preference to the male, that is,
a sister's son will succeed to the authority, rather than a brother's
son.
The position of this Winnebago queen, reminded me forcibly of Queen
Victoria's.
"She sat in the council, but only asked a few questions, or gave some
trifling directions in matters relative to the state, for women are
never allowed to sit in their councils, except they happen to be
invested with the supreme authority, and then it is not customary for
them to make any formal speeches, as the chiefs do.
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