206 DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
back possibly he takes her hand and helps her up, and then walks home by 
her side. Such was the custom in the olden time. Thus a mutual under- 
standing is reached. He wants her and she wants him. He has seen her 
ability to supply the tipi with fuel as well as do other necessary things, 
and she has often seen him bringing to his mother’s tent a back load of 
ducks, or, it may be, venison Capt. R. H. Pratt, of Carlisle school, tells a 
capital story of a Kiowa young man who, under a variety of circumstances, 
never “cared for girl.” ‘But when Laura say she love me, then I begin 
to care for girl.” 
The young man then informs his father and mother, and they approy- 
ing, together with other family friends, make up the bundle-of-purchase. 
It may be a horse. If so, it is led by one of his friends and tied by the 
tent of the girl’s parents.» Or guns and blankets are contributed, which are 
carried by an aunt or other female relative, and the load is laid down at the 
tent door. It is ‘‘wo-hpa-pi,” /aying down, and the young man thus lays 
down or tenders his otter for the girl. If this ts not satisfactory, either from 
the small amount or the character of the young man, the offerings are carried 
back, and the young folks have a chance to elope, unless they are restrained 
by higher considerations. 
Sometimes it happens that a young man wants a girl, and her friends 
are also quite willing, while she alone is unwilling. The purchase bundle 
is desired by her friends, and hence compulsion is resorted to. The girl 
yields and goes to be his slave, or she holds out stoutly, sometimes taking 
her own life as the alternative. Several cases of this kind have come to the 
personal knowledge of the writer. The legends of Winona and Black Day 
Woman are standing testimonies. The comely dark-eyed Winona wanted 
to wed the successful hunter, but the brilliant warrior was forced upon her, 
and therefore she leaped from the crag on Lake Pepin, which immortalizes 
her name. For a like reason, Black-Day Woman pushed her canoe out 
into the current, above the Falls of Saint Anthony, and sang her death song 
as it passed over. These are doubtless historical events, except that the 
years are not known. 
When the offer is accepted the girl is taken by some relative to the 
tent of the buyer. In the olden time it is said the custom was that she 
rode on the back of some female friend. Thus they become man and wife, 
with the idea of property strongly impressed upon the mind of the man. 
He has purchased her, as he would do a horse, and has he not a right to 
command her, and even to beat her? The customs of his people allow it. 
