POLYANDBY. 295 



them. This is the more remarkable from the fact that, 

 though in many of the American-Indian tribes there is, on 

 this subject, much looseness of practice, even where poly- 

 gamy is the rule, yet the Mojaves' immediate neighbours 

 the Pah-Utes, the Hualapais, and the Yumayas are dis- 

 tinguished for the constancy of their matrons. Whether 

 this is entirely attributable to an ususual in the savage 

 state development of innate female virtue, or to the fact 

 that in those tribes a case of deviation incurs the penalty 

 of divorce and the loss of the nose, or death, at the option 

 of the plaintiff, is a matter quite beyond my skill in 

 casuistry. 



Once when at Fort Mojave I met a very queer specimen 

 of a westernised Yankee. He certainly was, as he de- 

 scribed himself, "Of a slightually impatient natral dis- 

 posish," and he gave me such an amusing practical proof 

 of the truth of the assertion, that I think an account of 

 him and his eccentricities will prove interesting to the 

 reader ; more especially because he was one of that class 

 of originals only met with on the frontier. I was on the 

 eve of starting for the interior of Arizona to a post in 

 whose neighbourhood gold-seeking was going on, when a 

 tali, wiry stranger, whose speech " bewrayed " him, stalked 

 up to me. He saluted, and requested permission to accom- 

 pany my party to its destination, and to be allowed to put 

 a small bundle and his blankets in one of the waggons. 

 He would walk and be no trouble, for he would provide 

 himself with provisions and do his own cooking. All he 

 wanted was protection, and some means of transporting his 

 " plunder." 



