68 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



but after awhile they " set up housekeeping for them- 

 selves/' always of course in that part of the encampment 

 occupied by the wife's clan. 1 The Musquakies, though 

 belonging to the Algonquian stock and organised 

 in clans, no longer reckon descent through the mother. 

 A Musquaki youth having chosen a lady generally 

 his senior by several years, negotiations for the 

 marriage are opened by his mother with the mother of 

 his beloved. If the preliminaries be satisfactory a 

 course of courtship follows involving the exhibition 

 of considerable endurance by both parties. At length 

 he is admitted to his future mother-in-law's presence. 

 She hands him a platter of food, and while he is eating 

 it she haggles with him over the presents she is to 

 receive. When the bargain is made she and her 

 husband dress him in a new suit of clothes and take 

 him round to present him formally to all the friends 

 and relatives of both sides. The next day the wedding 

 ceremony takes place, commencing by the delivery 

 of his presents to his mother-in-law. He then enters 

 the wigwam on the invitation of his father-in-law, 

 where the bride prepares a little bowl of gruel for him. 

 After eating it he leads her with some little endearments 

 to a roll of blankets, where they sit the rest of the day 

 while friends visit the hut. The marriage is then 

 complete. The bridegroom " lives with his wife's 

 people, but this does not make him or his children of her 

 clan of her people's clan, that is, for she henceforth 

 belongs to his till death or divorce separates her from 

 him. As for his children, his death or divorce gives 

 the minors to the maternal grandmother's clan ; but 

 those who have had the puberty feast still belong 



1 Powell, Rep, Bur. Ethn. \, 63. 



