MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



503 



marriage into the husband's fa- 

 mily, where she resides until in- 

 creasing numbei's oblige them to 

 seek another house. In this state 

 the old man is not considered as 

 the head of the family, since the 

 active duties, as well as the re- 

 sponsibility, fall on some of the 

 younger members. As these fa- 

 milies gradually expand into 

 bands, or tribes, or nations, the 

 paternal aiithonty is represented 

 by the chief of each association. 

 This chieftain, however, is not 

 hereditary ; his ability to render 

 service to his neighboiirs, and the 

 popularity which follows it, is at 

 once the foundation and the mea- 

 sure of his authority, the exercise 

 of which does not extend beyond 

 a reprimand for some improper 

 action. 



The harmony of their private 

 life is indeed secured by their 

 ignorance of sjnrituous liquors, 

 the earliest and most dreadful 

 present which civilization has 

 given to the other natives of the 

 continent. Although they have 

 had so much intercourse with 

 whites, they do not appear to 

 possess any knowledge of those 

 dangerous luxuries, at least they 

 have never inquired after them, 

 which they probably would have 

 done if once they had been intro- 

 duced among them. Indeed, we 

 ha^e not observed any liquor of 

 an intoxicating quality used among 

 these or any Indians west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, the \iniversal 

 beverage being pure water. '1 hey, 

 however, sometimes almost in- 

 toxicate themselves by smoking 

 tobacco, of which they are ex- 

 cessively fond, and the pleasures 

 of which they prolong as much as 

 possible, by retaining vast quan- 



tities at a time, till after circu- 

 lating through the lungs and sto- 

 mach, it issues in volumes from 

 the mouth and nostrils . But the 

 natural vice of all these people 

 is an attachment for games of 

 hazard, which they pursue with 

 a strange and iiiinous avidity. 

 The games are of two kinds. lu 

 the first, one of the company 

 assumes the office of banker, and 

 plays against the rest. He takes 

 a small stone, about the size of a 

 bean, which he shifts from one 

 hand to the other with great dex- 

 terity, repeating at the same time 

 a song adapted to the game, and 

 which serses to divert the atten- 

 tion of the company, till having 

 agreed on the stake, he holds out 

 his hands, and the antagonist 

 wins or loses as he succeeds or 

 fails at guessing in which hand 

 the stone is. After the banker 

 has lost his money, or whenever 

 he is tired, the stone is trans- 

 ferred to another, who in turn 

 challenges the rest of the com- 

 pany. The other game is some- 

 thing like the play of ninepins : 

 two pins are placed on the floor, 

 about the distance of a foot from 

 each other, and a small hole made 

 behind them. The players then 

 go about ten feet from the hole, 

 into which they try to roll a 

 small piece resembling the men 

 used at draughts ; if they succeed 

 in putting it into the hole, they 

 win the stake ; if the piece rolls 

 between the pins, but does not 

 go into the hole, nothing is won 

 or lost ; but the wager is wh(»lly 

 lost if the chequer rolls outside of 

 the pins. Entire days ai'e wasted 

 at these gan»es, which are often 

 continued through the night 

 round the blaze of theii- fires, till 



the 



