148 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



At the present time the Ponca customarily contract marriages in 

 the manner of the major White culture, i.e., in either a church or a 

 civil ceremony. Common law marriages are also quite common. 



Courtship was sometimes a bit difficult for the Ponca youth in 

 aboriginal times, since maidens, though usually quite willing to come 

 at least half way, were closely chaperoned by older female relatives. 

 With a strong will, however, the Ponca boy usually found a way. 

 PLC commented as follows: 



When a boy wanted to impress a girl he would wear his best clothes and parade 

 in front of her whenever he could. At dances he would try to talk to her alone. 

 Girls would walk under a boy's blanket for a while, and the boys would talk to 

 them. 



It was usually quite hard for a boy to talk with a girl alone. Wherever a girl 

 went, some female relative would go along. Boys sometimes found opportunities 

 to speak with girls when the girls went after water. When a girl was interested 

 in a boy she would make it easy for him to see her. Sometimes a boy would 

 court a girl by playing his flute outside her tent at night. She would know who 

 it was, and if she could, she would go outside and speak with him. 



Little information could be secured on Ponca nuptials. One gains 

 the impression that there was slight formal ceremony. PLC com- 

 mented merely that a Ponca bride braided her hair and put on her 

 best clothes for the marriage feast. This feast was attended by the 

 families of the bride and groom and a few of the couple's friends. 



As I have indicated earlier, the Ponca practiced polygyny. PLC 

 commented: "Usually the old-time Poncas only had one wife. Some- 

 times, though, a well-to-do man would take two wives. If he did this 

 he usually took the younger sister of the first wife, because they could 

 get along better if they were sisters. Standing-bear, the chief, had 

 two wives, and they were sisters. A woman never had two husbands." 



At the present time monogamy is the only form of marriage in the 

 Ponca tribe. 



Divorce was simple in Ponca society. PLC stated: "If a man and 

 wife didn't get along, or weren't satisfied, they just split up." Skinner 

 (1915 c, pp. 784-785) writes of men giving away their wives in the 

 HeMska dance, and Whitman (1937, p. 41) notes that: "For prestige 

 fathers gave up their sons to war; husbands gave away their wives." 



There was no fixed rule regarding the disposition of children of a 

 divorced couple. J. O. Dorsey (1884 a, p. 262) writes: "When parents 

 separate, the children are sometimes taken by their mother, and some- 

 times by her mother or their father's mother. Should the husband 

 be unwilhng, the wife cannot take the children with her. Each 

 consort can remarry." 



Separation and desertion are the common forms of ending a marriage 

 among the present-day Ponca. Though legal divorce is recognized 

 as the "right way" of doing things, few Ponca bother with it. Cost 



