2 3 o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



shonees were not indeed so importunate in volunteering 

 the services of their wives, yet a Shoshonean husband 

 would for a trifling present lend his wife for a night to 

 a stranger and prolong the loan in consideration of an 

 addition to the value of the gift. He would however 

 regard favours which he had not authorised as "highly 

 offensive and quite as disgraceful to his character as 

 the same licentiousness in civilised societies." 1 The 

 members of the expedition found the persevering 

 gallantry of the Chinook and Clatsop women par- 

 ticularly troublesome. Their kindness always exceeded 

 the ordinary courtesies of hospitality. A man would 

 lend his wife or daughter for a fishhook or a strand of 

 beads. To decline the offer was to disparage the 

 lady's charms ; and nothing seemed to irritate both 

 sexes more than the refusal to accept the favours of 

 the women. A chief came one day with his two 

 squaws, whose services he offered to the two chiefs of 

 the expedition. When they were refused both he and 

 the whole party of Indians were greatly offended, none 

 more so than the ladies themselves. The unmarried 

 girls were their own mistresses ; and, as among all the 

 other Indians with whom the leaders of the expedition 

 were acquainted, they were in the habit of soliciting 

 the favours of the other sex, with the full approval of 

 their friends and kindred. 2 



Later inquiries have fully confirmed this account of 

 the Chinook and resulted in extending it to other tribes 

 of the neighbourhood. We are told in general terms of 



described by Miss Kingsley. These were always of a temporary 

 character, and did not injure a lady's future prospects when the 

 connection came to an end (Catlin, i. 120). 



1 Lewis and Clark, ii. 119. 2 Id. 331, 291. 



