s\VA.\T..Nl INDIAN "I'lni'.KS Ol' ■IIIK LOWKi; M ISSISSI IMM VAI.LKV 97 



Id. in-cvidi'd slu> iilciiscs tluiii. As |.. tlic rcliUivcs of the j,'irl, tlicir only caro 

 is to inform tlu'Uisclvos wlu'liicr lit' who asics licr is an able luiiitoi-, a Kood 

 warrior, and an I'Xi-ollcnt worlanan. 'I'licsc (inalitics diuiinisli llic price wliich 

 Ilu'.v have a rijriil (o ask on the niarria^io. 



When tlif jiarties have a^'roed, tiio futnre husband .uoes to the chase with Ids 

 friends; and when he has sntHcient either of game or of (isb to feast the two 

 families who have contracted the alliance, they assemble at the house of the 

 parents of the girl. They particularly serve the newly married pair, who eat 

 from the same dish. Tlie repast l)eing ended, the bridegroom smolies the calumet 

 Inward the parents of liis wife, and then toward his own parents, after which 

 all the guests retire. The newly married people remain togetlier until the next 

 day. and then tlie luisband conducts his wife to the residence of her father-in- 

 law, where they live until the fan)!ly Uas built for him a cabin of his owni. 

 While they are constructing it, he passes the whole day in the chase to furnish 

 food, which he gives to those who are employed in this work. 



The laws permit the Natchez to have as many wives as they choose. Never- 

 theless, the common people generally have but one or two. Thi.s, however, is 

 not the case with the chiefs. Their number is greater, because having the right 

 to oblige the people to cultivate their fields, without giving them any wages, 

 the number of their wives is no e.xpense to them. 



The marriage of the chiefs is made with less ceremony. They content them- 

 selves with sending to fetch the father of the girl whom they wish to esiiouse, 

 and they declare to him that they will give her the rank of their waves. They 

 do not fail, however, as soon as the marriage is consummated, to make a 

 present to the father and mother. Although they have many wives, they keep 

 but one or two in their own cabins; the rest remain at the houses of their 

 parents, where they go to see them when they wnsh. 



At certain periods of the moon these savages never lie with their wives. 

 Jealousy has so little place in their hearts that many find no ditlieulty in lend- 

 ing their wdves to their friends. This indifference to the conjugal union 

 results from the liberty they have of changing them when it seems good to 

 them, provided, liowexer, that their wives have never borne children to them, 

 for if any have been born of the marriage nothing but death can separate 

 them." 



Dumont says: 



When a young savage wishes to marry a girl whose father and mother are 

 still living, after having obtained her consent, he goes to make the demand for 

 her from her i)arents. If they grant it to him he does not fail, some days 

 afterward, to make a present to his future father-in-law of a gun, for example, 

 and to his mother-in-law of a complete covering of Limbourg, and if the girl 

 he is going to marry has sisters, it is also necessary for him to give them ver- 

 milion, beads, bracelets. In a word, before marrying he is obliged to make 

 some present to all the nearest relatives of his intended. What is remarkable 

 is that in spite of the corruption and libertinism which reign among the bar- 

 lyarians, the bond of marriage is much more respected by them than among 

 more civilized people. With tlie exception of the great chief of the nation, who 

 alone among them has the privilege of being able to marry many women, all 

 the others have only one, and it is unheard of for separation and divorce to be 

 spoken of. A savage is never seen to change the woman whom he has once 

 married. He keeps her until death.'' 



« Le Petit in .Tos. Rel., lxviii, 140-143. 



" Dumont, Mem. Hist, sur La Louisiane, i, 156-157. 



83221)— Bull. 43—10 7 



