234 INDIAN WOOING. 



prenticeship is exacted, in hunting or otherwise, 

 from the bridegroom. 



A. (Tolmie.) The suitor does not court, but 

 when he has made a selection he sends his 

 mother or aunt to the damsel with a proposal, 

 to which she made no reply. The parents 

 are then referred to, and should they have 

 consented, the suitor w r atches for the damsel 

 at the accustomed watering place and proposes 

 to her. The consent being given, the suitor, 

 accompanied by his friends, dressed in their best, 

 and driving loose horses, goes to the parents' 

 lodge. They then strip off their fine clothes, 

 obtaining old ones in return, and allow the 

 bride's friends to select horses from the band 

 driven up. Soon after, the bride's friends, ar- 

 rayed in their best, carry the bride on a robe to 

 her future husband's lodge, and exchanging there 

 their good clothes for old ones, leave without 

 making any return for the horses received. 

 Should the woman be badly used by her husband 

 she is taken home by her mother or aunt, the 

 father and brothers scrupulously avoiding inter- 

 ference. Interchange of presents is the inva- 

 riable rule, a preponderance going to the bride's 

 parents. At Milbank the ceremonies, which are 

 tedious, are performed on a platform resting on 



