SWANTON] MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 225 
weather, and when the ground is covered with snow, against their bodily ease 
and pleasure, men and women turn out of their warm houses or stoves, reeking 
with sweat, singing their usual sacred notes, Yo, Yo, etc., at the dawn of day... 
and thus they skip along, echoing praises, till they get to the river, when they 
instantaneously plunge into it. If the water is frozen, they break the ice with 
a religious impatience: After bathing, they return home, rejoicing as they run 
for having so well performed their religious duty, and thus purged away the 
impurities of the preceding day by ablution. The neglect of this bath hath been 
deemed so heinous a crime that they have raked the legs and arms of the 
delinquent with snake’s teeth, not allowing warm water to relax the stiffened 
skin. ” 
He adds that the women were less rigid in the performance of this 
duty, “for they only purify themselves as their discretion directs 
them.” % 
Boys were more desired than girls and were more carefully edu- 
cated. They were not allowed to run about freely as they de to-day, 
and it is claimed that they were not permitted to marry until they 
were about 30, though this is certainly a considerable exaggeration. 
Nevertheless they were usually affianced in childhood. Children of 
opposite sexes were not allowed to play together after they had at- 
tained the age of three or four years, and a girl could not go any- 
where by herself until after she was married. 
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 
As in the case of so many other customs, we can not introduce 
this subject better than by inserting what Adair has to say 
regarding it: 
It is usual for an elderly man to take a girl, or sometimes a child to be his 
wife, because she is capable of receiving good impressions in that tender state: 
frequently, a moon elapses after the contract is made, and the value received, 
before the bridegroom sleeps with the bride, and on the marriage day, he does 
not appear before her till night introduces him, and then without tapers ., . 
The Indians also are so fond of variety, that they ridicule the white people, 
as a tribe of narrow-hearted, and dull constitutioned animals, for having only 
one wife at a time; and being bound to live with and support her, though num- 
berless circumstances might require a contrary conduct. When a young warrior 
can not dress a la mode America, he strikes up one of those matches for a few 
moons, which they term Toopsa Tdwah,” “a make haste marriage,’ because it 
wants the usual ceremonies, and duration of their other kind of marriages. .. . 
When an Indian makes his first address to the young woman he intends to 
marry, she is obliged by ancient custom to sit by him till he hath done eating 
and drinking, whether she likes or dislikes him; but afterward, she is at 
her own choice whether to stay or retire. When the bridegroom marries the 
bride, after the usual prelude, he takes a choice ear of corn, and divides it 
in two before witnesses, gives her one half in her hand, and keeps the other 
© Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p, 120. 
7 Thid:; p; 121: 
* This should be tushpa itauaya, from tushpa, in haste, and itawaya, to marry. 
