ooubky.j PERSONAL LAW. 365 



the embraces of twenty or thirty meu successively; she is then aban- 

 doned. But this never happened when the woman had any immediate 

 kindred, for if she had any such kindred in the tribe the husband would 

 be afraid to punish his wife in that manner. A woman thus punished 

 became an outcast; uo one would marry her. 



(b) Prostitution. — Iu 1879 there were only two or three women in the 

 Omaha tribe that were known as mi n ckeda or public women. Of late 

 years, according to La Fleche and Two Crows, there have been many 

 mi u ckeda, but it was not so formerly, when the Indians were the only 

 inhabitants. A father did not reprove his daughter if she was a 

 mi n ckeda, He left that to lier elder brother and her mother's brother, 

 who might strike her with sticks. Sometimes, if very augry with her, 

 they could shoot an arrow at her, and if they killed her, nobody could 

 complain. 



(c) Fornication. — This is not practiced as a rule, except with women 

 or girls that are mi u ckeda. So strict are the Omahas about these mat- 

 ters, that a young girl or even a married women walking or riding aloue, 

 would be ruined iu character, being liable to be taken for a mi u ckeda, 

 and addressed as such. No woman can ride or walk with any man but 

 her husband or some immediate kinsman. Shegeuerally gets some other 

 woman to accompany her, unless her husband goes. Young men are 

 forbiddeu to speak to girls, if they should meet two or more on the 

 road, unless they are kindred. The writer was told of some immorality 

 after some of the dances iu which the women and girls participate. 

 This has occurred recently ; and does not apply to all the females pres- 

 ent, but only to a few, and that not on all occasions. When girls go to 

 see the dances their mothers accompany them ; and husbauds go with 

 their wives. After the dance the women are taken home. 



(d) Schoopanism, or ptederastia. — A man or boy who suffered asa victim 

 of this crime was called a mi n -quga, or hermaphrodite. La Fleche and 

 Two Crows say that the mi n -quga is "gfa D ^i n ," foolish, therefore he acts 

 in that manner. 



(c) Bapc. — But one Omaha has a bad reputation in the tribe for having 

 frequently been guilty of this crime. It is said that one clay he met 

 the daughter of Gia n ze-<fiOge, when she was about a mile from home, 

 driving several ponies. He pulled her off her horse, and though she was 

 not over seven or eight years old, he violated her. The same man was 

 charged with having committed incest with his own mother. 



§ 302. Maiming, — This never occurs except in two cases : First, by ac- 

 cident, as when two men wrestle, in sport, and an arm is broken by a 

 blow from a bow or stick ; secondly, when the policemen hit offenders 

 with their whips, on the head, arms, or body; but this is a punishment 

 and not a crime. La Fleche and Two Crows never heard of teeth 

 being knocked out, noses broken, eyes injured, etc., as among white or 

 colored men. 



Slander is not punishable, as it is like the wind, being " waniajl," that 

 is, unable to cause pain. 



