CURIOUS MATRIMONIAL CUSTOM. 271 



dence ; the 'Tend dii Lacs" more so perhaps than 

 the Rat Indians. They are both great gormandisers, 

 and will devour solid fat, or even drink grease to 

 surfeiting. When in provision they pass their time 

 in continual feasting, and are of course often in the 

 opposite extreme, but do not bear starvation with so 

 great patience as the " Dogribs," Hare, or Slave- 

 Indians. 



A curious custom matrimonial is said to exist 

 among them, which Mr. Hardisty thus related to me. 

 When a female child becomes two or three years old, a 

 bargain is made with the parents, in which the mother is 

 most interested, by some youth of the tribe, that she 

 is to become his wife when marriageable ; the settle- 

 ment is deferred until that period, but the contract is 

 always binding : and should another lover step in, 

 and by any means succeed in obtaining the damsel, 

 she is not considered to be his wife until he has made 

 satisfactory compensation to the ci-devant bride- 

 groom. Polygamy is practised, generally in proportion 

 to the rank and wealth of the man, a young wife 

 being added to the stock on hand, when one becomes 

 too old for the laborious employments imposed upon 

 the females ; the new acquisition becoming, of course, 

 the favourite sultana. I saw while here a Loucheux 

 Indian, who, some five years since, killed one of the 



