246 TIMEHRI. 
of the arrivals seems suddenly to become aware of my — 
a€tual presence. He comes up to me, shakes my hand—for ee: 
he has unfortunately heard that this is the proper thing 
among white men—and begins to repeat to me all that 
he has heard of me from his host. 
All this time the newly arrived women have, apparently 
entirely unnoticed by any of the people of the settlement, 
men or women, hung the hammocks, unpacked and ~ 
spread about their cooking utensils, and then thrown 
themselves into their hammocks. Only after the men 
have broken bread and made friends, does it appear to 
dawn upon the women of the settlement that some 
guests of their own sex have appeared among them. 
The fact once admitted, they carry the remainder of the 
men’s feast to the newly arrived women. But from the 
first, and throughout the stay, the men of the settlement 
never seem to observe the presence of their guests of the 
softer sex. 
To prevent a common misapprehension, it is as well 
here to say that the burdening and overlooking of the 
women by the men which has just been described, though 
not in accordance with the ideas of civilized socie- 
ties, does not prevent a tolerably equable distribution 
of rights between these redskinned men and women, 
It is only that the method of distribution differs 
from that to which we are accustomed. In this red 
society it seems to be considered almost indelicate for 
men to take any open notice of women, even though 
these be their own wives. Yet, on the rare occasions on 
which a white man, unobserved, obtains a glimpse of the 
bearing toward each other of a young redman and red- 
woman, it is abundantly evident that this is of an affec- 
é 
