128 TRAVELS through 



The Illinois have very near the fame manners 

 and cuftoms as the Nations I have already fpoken 

 of 5 they only differ in their language. They 

 marry, and often, when they return from hunt- 

 ing, leave each other again, each party going 

 a different way. 



The marriage of the Indians is quite in the 

 ftate of nature, and has no other form than the 

 mutual content of tl e parties. As they are not 

 tied by any civil contrail, whenever they are dif- 

 fatisfied with each other, they feparate, without 

 ceremony, faying that marriage is a tie of the 

 heart, and that they only marry in order to love 

 each other, and help each other mutually in 

 their wants. I have feen very happy marriages 

 among thefe people ; divorces and polygamy are 

 uncommon aniongft them, though the latter is 

 allowed by the laws. An Indian may have two 

 wives if he hunts well ; fometimes one Indian 

 marries two fillers, giving it as a reafon that 

 they will agree better among themfelves, than 

 two that are ftrangers to each other. The In- 

 dian women in general are very laborious -, they 

 are commonly told, when they are young., that 

 if they be idle or heavy, they will get a 

 wretched hufband. Here avarice, ambition, 

 and riKiny other pafTions, fo common among the 



Europeans, 



