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. She was a very
ancient woman, small in stature, and not much distinguished by her
dress from several young women that attended her. These, her attendants,
seemed greatly pleased whenever I showed any tokens of respect to their
queen, especially when I saluted her, which I frequently did to acquire
her favor."

The other was a woman, who being taken captive, found means to kill her
captor, and make her escape, and the tribe were so struck with
admiration at the courage and calmness she displayed on the occasion, as
to make her chieftainess in her own right.

Notwithstanding the homage paid to women, and the consequence allowed
her in some cases, it is impossible to look upon the Indian women,
without feeling that they _do_ occupy a lower place than women among the
nations of European civilization. The habits of drudgery expressed in
their form and gesture, the soft and wild but melancholy expression of
their eye, reminded me of the tribe mentioned