112 EXPEDITION TO THE 



It is impossible in seeing them at present, not to feel 

 convinced that the time for correct information has passed 

 away ; they have imbibed from the missionaries so many 

 notions which certainly did not belong to them originally, 

 and the crafty policy of their chiefs to counteract the ef- 

 fect of their intercourse with white men, has raised so many 

 idle and false traditions, that it is difficult to distinguish 

 the genuine from the false doctrines attributed to these na- 

 tions in their original state. Of the many interesting customs, 

 which, according to their traditions, v^^ere formerly preva- 

 lent among them, the dereliction of none is more to be re- 

 gretted than of that which accompanied their marriage cere- 

 mony. This has now nearly disappeared from the face of 

 the country. Their intermarriages with other nations have 

 become so frequent, and the demoralizing tendency of their 

 Intercourse with the traders has been so great, that it has 

 led them to neglect practices which were recommended 

 to them by a venerable antiquity. 



The form of courtship which existed formerly, is 

 stated to have been as follows ; when a young man had con- 

 ceived an attachment for a female, or that he wished to 

 make her his wife, he gave the first intimation of his de- 

 sign, by throwing a deer into the lodge belonging to the 

 girl's parent. This he would repeat for several days, from 

 ten to fifteen, after which the father usually asked him 

 what object he had in doing so, and whether it was to ob- 

 tain his daughter. The young man having replied in the 

 affirmative, the relations of the girl would, if they approv- 

 ed of the connexion, prepare a dress for the youth, which 

 they would take to his house, and there the damsel's father 

 would invest him with it. He would then take him home 

 with him and introduce him to the bride ; there the lover 

 remained for the space of ten or twelve days, until his 



