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SECTION 28

"'Now another message of things not right.

"'People do wrong in the world and the Creator looks at all things.

"'A woman sees some green vegetables and they are not hers. She takes them wrongly. Now she is yenon'skwaswa'don?, a thieving woman. Tell your people that petty thieving must cease.' So they said.

"'Now the Creator gave Diohe?'kon 2 for a living. When a woman sees a new crop and wishes to eat of it in her own house, she must ask the owner for a portion and offer payment. Then may the owner use her judgment and accept recompense or give the request freely.'" 3

So they said and he said. Eniaiehuk.


Footnotes

39:2 Meaning, "our life givers," the corn, beans and squashes. See Iroquois Uses of Maize, p. 36.

39:3 One of the old methods of gardening was to clear a small patch in the woods by girdling the trees and planting in the mellow forest mold. The name and totem of the owner of the garden was painted on a post, signifying that the ground was private property. The clan totem gave permission to any hard-pressed clansman to take what he wished in emergency but only in such a case. These isolated gardens in the forests were objects of temptation sometimes, as the prophet intimates.


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