1879. ] Curious Aboriginal Customs. 7 
execution of this punishment dates back to the year 1660, when 
the Jesuit Fathers first penetrated the then extreme North-west. 
The informant says, in a letter to Father Claude Boucher, that 
the Nadouechiouec (Dakotas) cut off the cartilaginous portion of 
the nose of an adulteress. John Payne,” in quoting Carver, states 
that, “ Among this nation of Indians (Nawdowessies, z. e., Dako- 
tas), if a married woman is found to have been false to wedlock, 
the punishment inflicted upon her is for the husband to bite off 
her nose; this our author saw inflicted whilst he was in the 
country.” 
I had received information to this effect in 1872-73, while I 
was stationed on the Upper Missouri, but coming as it did from 
unreliable sources, I gave no credence to the stories of bygone 
punishments, as I had not seen any references to this practice 
among any tribes north of Arizona. Now, however, I am in- 
clined to believe that there was some truth in the assertions above 
referred to. Several days ago, in conversation with several 
gentlemen upon aboriginal customs and manners, I chanced to 
mention this form of punishment, when one of them (a promi- 
nent official of the B. & O. R. R. Co.) remarked that he had seen 
squaws among the Utes, near Ft. Bridger, thus mutilated, and 
was told at the time, less than two years ago, that they had been 
punished for infidelity. No doubt others scattered over the extreme 
western portion of the continent practiced the same cruel custom 
at no remote time. 
This extended throughout some of the tribes formerly inhabit- 
ing the country between the Mississippi and the Atlantic. Caleb 
Swan, writing about 1791, says} that prostitution was common 
among the Creeks, and scarcely any attention was paid to it, as 
far as any punishment was concerned. But, when a marriage 
has been contracted according to the more ancient and serious 
custom of the tribe, it is considered more binding than ordinary, 
and in violation of this law, or in taking the least freedom with 
any other person, is considered adultery, “and invariably pun- — — 
ished by the relations of the offended party, by whipping, and __ 
cutting off the hair and ears close to the head.” In this case the 
ears are named only, but very probably the nose was included in 
1 Margry, Jesuit Rel. i, 1876, p. 53 ef seg. [Extrait de la Relation de la Nouvelle- 
France, de 1660, addressée au Révérend Pére Claude Boucher. ] 
*Universal Geography, iv., 1799, p. 42. 
Schoolcraft, v, 1868, p. 269. 
é 
