704 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



time a bowl of sofki was placed under the projecting eaves of the 

 corncrib and that if the youth was allowed to steal up and take a 

 spoonful of this it was a sign that he was accepted, whereas the girl 

 might not permit it. Bartram mentions the exchange of reeds such 

 as they used in the corn hills as symbols of marriage, and we also 

 hear of an ear of corn being divided by the two and of venison being 

 given to the woman by her intended husband and an ear of corn 

 to him by his intended wife. Hawkins says that 



when a man has built a house, made his crop, and gathered it in, then made 

 his hunt and brought home the meat, and put all this in the possession of 

 his wife, the ceremony ends, and they are married; or as they express it, the 

 woman is bound. (Hawkins, 1848, p. 73.) 



The youth made his first visit to his wife late at night, left very 

 early, and spoke little to any of his wife's f amil}^ for a month. After 

 the succeeding busk their union was considered established. Claiborne 

 says that either of them could leave the other at that time. Having 

 passed it, according to Stiggins, the woman is regarded by her hus- 

 band's family as bound to him "for life or his pleasure." This would 

 appear at variance with what has been said regarding the necessity 

 for repeated presents, but these last seem to have been made most 

 often to retain the later and subordinate wives, testifying that their 

 husband still retained an interest in and authority over them. These 

 wives could be added onlj^^ with the consent of the first wife, and if 

 he married another without her consent she and the people of her 

 family had the right to fall upon him and his new wife, beat them 

 unmercifully and cut off their ears, in other words treat them as 

 adulterers. Except by consent of the first wife, none of the others 

 might stay in her house. Punishment for adultery was very severe 

 and will be treated when we come to consider crime and punishment. 

 As has been said, divorce might take place at the time of the first 

 busk after marriage, but it was unusual if there were children, and 

 presumably if there were immediate prospects of any. It might also 

 occur in consequence of the husband having taken a second wife 

 without his first wife's consent, in the manner above indicated. 

 Under such circumstances husband and wife separated, the former 

 being compelled to live with his new wife, while the latter had to 

 remain single for 4 years under penalty of being treated as an adul- 

 teress. There was the same prescription regarding a widow, who was 

 forced to remain in the house most of the time in unkempt clothing 

 and with dissheveled hair and to avoid festivities of any kind until 

 the 4 years were past. She was, indeed, under suspicion all that time 

 unless she was very careful, and it is said that a man who should 

 wade into water upstream from her or ask her for a drink of water 

 from a pitcher might be accused of adultery. She was under the 



