584, REPORT—1899. 
When these have been received they sit down to a feast to which all the 
friends and relatives of both parties have been invited. After the feast is 
over the bridegroom takes his bride and departs with her to his own 
house. When two or three weeks have intervened, the wife’s relations 
send word that they are coming to pay the young couple a visit of 
ceremony. The young wife forthwith prepares a feast for them, and all 
the young man’s friends and relatives turn up again, together with those 
of the wife. Presents of value equal to those given by the bridegroom 
and his friends are now presented to him by the wife’s father and friends, 
after which all sit down to the feast prepared for the occasion. When 
this is over, the marriage is regarded as consummated, and the two are 
man and wife in the eyes of the whole community. 
But, on the other hand, should the suitor not be agreeable to the girl’s 
parents, the eldest male member of the girl’s family is appointed to 
acquaint the youth on his third visit that his advances are not acceptable 
to the family, and that he had better discontinue his visits. On the third 
morning, therefore, when the young man presents himself and squats 
down in the customary place, the old man chosen for the office of mes- 
senger goes over and informs him that the decision of the family is against 
him, and that he had better seek a wife elsewhere. If the young 
man’s affections have not been very deeply engaged, he will accept his 
dismissal and trouble them no more ; but if, on the contrary, he has set 
his heart on getting this particular girl for his wife, he will now 
go to the forest and cut down a quantity of firewood. He chooses for this 
the best alder-wood he can find, as this is more highly esteemed than other 
kinds among the Indians on account of its emitting no sparks when burn- 
ing. This he will take to the house of the girl’s father next morning at 
daybreak, and start a fire for the inmates. If the girl’s parents are serious 
in their rejection of him as their daughter’s husband, they will take both 
fire and wood and throw them out of the house. The youth is in no wise 
daunted by this, and repeats his action on the following morning, when 
they again reject his services, and cast out the wood and fire as before. 
But during that day, seeing his determination to get the girl for his wife, 
her people call another family council, at which the father points out to 
those assembled the young man’s perseverance and earnestness, and asks 
for their advice under the circumstances. They all answer that he must 
do what he thinks right and fitting. If the objection to the young man’s 
suit has come perchance from the mother of the girl—as it frequently 
does if she thinks the youth will not make a good food supplier for her 
daughter—the father asks her what she now thinks about the matter. 
She will probably reply that if they refuse any longer to accede to the 
young man’s wishes they will give him pain, so she withdraws her opposi- 
tion. The girl is then for the first time in the ceremony consulted in the 
matter, but as her desires are mostly what her parents wish, she rarely 
dissents from the arrangement. The matter thus being satisfactorily 
settled, the next morning, when the persevering youth presents himself 
with his wood and builds a fire, some of the elder members of the family 
come and sit round and warm their hands over it. By this action the 
youth knows that his suit is at last accepted, and that his perseverance is 
not to go unrewarded. He presently joins them at the morning meal, and 
the conclusion of the affair from that moment follows the course already 
described where the suitor was at the outset accepted. 
ee ae 
