SWANTONI IXDIAX TUIIJES OF THK LOWKU MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 95 



Says ChiiiliMoix : 



Wo kiuiw nil iiiitinii dii iliis coiit incut wlicrc tlu' female sex is inoi-e ir- 

 regular than in this. Tliey are even forced by the f^reat chief and his snhal- 

 terns to prostitute themselves to all comers, and a woman for beinj; conmiou 

 is not t he less «>stcenu'd." 



Ami Dii Pi at/, says: 



When the boys and sjirls have arrived at the ase of puberty they associate 

 with eaeh other familiarly, and have the liberty of doing so. The girls, fore- 

 wani(>d that they will no longer be mistresses of their own hearts after they 

 are UKirried, know Imw to dispose of them to their adv;inta,i:e in forming their 

 wardrobe as tlu> price of their iileasures, for in that country, as elsewhere, the 

 rule is nothing for nothing. Her intended, far from finding fault with this, on 

 the contrary vahies his future wife in proportion to the fruits which she has 

 produced.^ 



After niarria<>c\ however, all this is chan<2;ed ; and. if we may be- 

 lieve the almost unanimous reports of our authorities, infidelity, 

 except such as was commanded by the husband, was extremely 

 uncqnnnon on the part of married women and divorce nearly un- 

 known. Says I)u Pratz : 



In the eight years in which I was their neighbor I saw only a single case. 

 Then it was because the woman was very bad, according to the opinion of the 

 Xatchez as well as of the French. I'^ach took the cliildi-en of the same sex." 



A dissent ino- voice seems to be raised by the writer of the Luxem- 

 bourir memoir. howe\er, who evidently refers to the Indians of low^er 

 Lf)iiisiana, thouoh not certainly to the Natchez. He says: 



The husband can rei>iidiato his wife, and the wife quit her husband; his 

 parents give him another. 



Depressing" as this moral condition appears at first sight, it is one 

 always in danger of arising where a distinction is drawn between 

 love and marriage in the relations between the sexes; where, in other 

 words, the permanent union, or " official marriage,'"' is founded on 

 considerations other than those of mutual affection. In this respect 

 it must be confessed that there are civilized nations at the present 

 time in little better condition than w'ere the Natchez two centuries 

 ago. 



Marriage customs are described as follows: 



* * * marriage among the savages is not the most serious affair of life. 

 If there are some laws, they are very accommodating. A savage marries as 

 many women as he wishes; he is even in some manner obliged to in certain 

 cases. If the father and mother of his wife die and if she has many sisters, he 

 marries them all, so that nothing is more common than to see four or Ave 

 sisters the wives of a single husband. The one who becomes a mother first has 

 her prerogatives, which consist in being exempt from the painful labors of the 



Trench. Hist. Coll. La., IG."). 18.51. 



* Du Pratz. Hist, de La Louisiane, ii, :JSG-387. 



' Ibid., 387. 



