MARITAL JEALOUSY 231 



the tribes of Western Washington and North-western 

 Oregon that the idea of chastity is entirely wanting in 

 both sexes. " Prostitution is almost universal. An 

 Indian, perhaps, will not let his favourite wife, but he 

 looks upon his others, his sisters daughters female 

 relatives and slaves, as a legitimate source of profit ; 

 and this seems to have been a trait of the coast tribes 

 from their first intercourse with the whites. Occa- 

 sionally adultery forms a cause of difficulty ; but it is 

 then only because the woman is reserved for the time 

 being to the husband's use, or because he fears to be 

 cheated of his just emoluments. Cohabitation of un- 

 married females among their own people brings no 

 disgrace if unaccompanied with childbirth, which they 

 take care to prevent." * 



The Mandans, another of the tribes visited by Lewis 

 and Clark, are said by later travellers to have punished 

 adultery on the part of the wife by cutting off her nose. 2 

 Here as elsewhere adultery means the bestowal of 

 favours by the wife upon another man without her 

 husband's consent, which we have seen was often 

 given. When a certain dance, called the dance of the 

 half-shorn head, was sold by its Mandan possessors, 

 they received in part payment the temporary use of 

 the wives of the purchasers, each woman having the 

 right to choose her consort. 3 With such customs it is 



1 G. Gibbs, Contrib. N, Am. Ethn. i. 199. 



2 Will and Spinden, Peabody Mus. Papers, iii. 131, apparently on 

 the authority of Maximilian Prince of Wied. The same punishment 

 was said to be inflicted by the Ojibways and Blackfeet ; but among 

 the latter it does not prevent the women from painting their faces as 

 an invitation to men (Petitot, Traditions, 492). 



3 Dorsey, Rep, Bur. Ethn. xi. 505, citing Maximilian, Trav. N % 

 Amer. 426. 



