DoibEY.l COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 261 



ture could take place, as the woman would be sure to alarm her people 

 by her cries. 



§ S3. Customs subsequent to marriage. — Sometimes the kindred of the 

 husband are assembled by his father, who addresses them, saying, 

 •• My son's wife misses her old home. Collect gifts, and let her take 

 them to her kindred." Then the husband's kindred present to the wife 

 horses, food, etc., and the husband's mother tells her daughter-in-law 

 to take the gifts to her parents. When the husband and wife i .ich 

 the lodge of the wife's parents the father calls his daughter's kindred 

 to a feast and distributes the presents among them. By and by, per- 

 haps a year later, the wife's kindred may assemble and tell the husband 

 to take presents and food to his kindred, especially if the latter be poor. 

 This custom is now obsolescent. 



§ 84. Polygamy. — The maximum number of wives that one man can 

 have is three, e. g., the first wife, her aunt, and her sister or niece, if all 

 be consanguinities. Sometimes the three are not kindred. 8 



When a man wishes to take a second wife he always consults his first 

 wife, reasoning thus with her : " I wish you to have less work to do, so 

 I think of taking your sister, your aunt, or your brother's daughter for 

 my wife. You can then have her to aid you with your work." Should 

 the first wife refuse the man cannot marry the other woman. Gener- 

 ally no objection is offered, especially if the second woman be one of 

 the kindred of the first wife. 



Sometimes the wife will make the proposition to her husband, " I 

 wish you to marry my brother's daughter, as she and I are one flesh." 

 Instead of " brother's daughter," she may say her sister or her aunt. 



The first wife is never deposed. She always retains the right to man- 

 age household affairs, and she controls the distribution of food, etc., 

 giving to the other wives what she thinks they should receive. 



§ So. If a man has a wife who is active and skillful at dressing hides, 

 etc., and the other wives are lazy or unskillful, he leaves them with 

 their parents or other kindred, and takes the former wife with him when 

 he goes with the tribe on the buffalo hunt. Sometimes he will leave this 

 wife awhile to visit one of his other wives. But Dougherty was misin- 

 formed when he was told that the skillful wife would be apt to show 

 her jealousy by " knocking the dog over with a club, repulsing her own 

 child, kicking the fire about, pulling the bed, etc." (see p. 232, Vol. I, 

 Long's Expedition to the Roclcy Mountains), for when a wife is jealous she 

 scolds or strikes her husband or else she tries to hit the other woman. 



Polyandry.— The, Omahas say that this has not been practiced among 

 them, nor do the Ponkas know this custom. But the terms of kinship 

 seem to point to au age when it was practiced. 



§ 86. Permanence of marriage.— Among the Santee Dakotas, where 

 mother-right prevails (?), a wife's mother can take her from the husband 



"The writer knew a head chief that had four wives. 



