Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/223

Rh The following story on this point was told to me by a civilized Indian woman:

Her grandmother was a great belle and had many suitors. There was one whom she hated but was forced to marry because he could pay the highest price for her. He was the chief of a village and had great possessions, but he was middle-aged and lame, while Napana was young, strong, and beautiful.

He had asked her father and been invited to eat, and, having turned over the stipulated price, Napana was his. In this casethe price was so large that the bride was even denied her chance of winning freedom by the accustomed race. When Captain Lofonso came to take Napana away she refused to go and he had to carry her. Before he reached his home his strength gave out and he was obliged to stop for rest.

An Indian woman never had the right to beg for her freedom, but she had the privilege of struggling for it. Napana's strength increased as she realized her unhappy situation, and she fought madly for freedom; for if she could escape from him and get back to her own home before she had entered his she would be free, and he would lose his wife as well as the price paid for her. Captain Lofonso lacked the strength to get Napana on his back again, but he was determined that she should not get away, for his lameness would deprive him of all hope of catching her. Night came on, and still he held her tight by both wrists, while her strong jerks and pushes swayed both bodies back and forth until they sank to the ground exhausted. Toward morning his strength failed and he fell asleep. As she felt his hands loosen their hold on her wrists she mustered all her remaining strength and crawled back toward her home; but she never reached it. Just as the sun rose over the mountain above her home she sank insensible at the threshold. Here Lofonso found her and bore her back to his home with never an opposing struggle.

Childbirth was of no inconvenience to the average Indian