Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 2).djvu/180

174 must make to her father, which he considers as payment for his daughter. The young warrior then gives a feast, to which he invites all the family—when the feast is done, they dance and sing their war songs.—The merriment being over, and mutual presents exchanged between the lover and her relations, the father covers them with a beaver robe, and gives them likewise a new gun and a birch canoe, with which the ceremony ends.

When the French became masters of Canada, the ceremony of marriage between the Savages was very fantastical.

When a lover wished his mistress to be informed of his affection, he procured an interview with her, which was always at night, and in {137} the presence of some of her friends; this was conducted in the following manner:

He entered the wigwam, the door of which was commonly a skin, and went up to the hearth on which some hot coals were burning; he then lighted a stick of wood, and approaching his mistress, pulled her three times by the nose, to awaken her; this was done with decency, and being the custom, the squaw did not feel alarmed at the liberty. This ceremony, ridiculous as it may appear, was continued occasionally for two months, both parties behaving during the time in all other respects, with the greatest circumspection.

The moment she becomes a wife, she loses her liberty, and is an obsequious slave to her husband, who never loses sight of his prerogative. Wherever he goes she must follow, and durst not venture to incense him by a refusal, knowing that if she neglects him, extreme punishment, if not death, ensues. The chief liberty he allows her is to dance and sing in his company, and is seldom known to take any more notice of her than of the most