Only a few minor ceremonies directly disturbed the current of 
the child’s life during this early period, as when the parents of a 
Haida boy gave a special feast at the jhercing of his ears and nose. 
The real crisis came with adolescence, which signified to the Indians, 
as to most primitive peojdes, far more than the mere transition from 
childhood to maturity. They regarded it as a season fraught with 
mystery and danger, a time when the sui)ernatural powers that con- 
trolled the jdienomena of nature drew unusually near the individual 
and often marked out his destiny. In many parts of Canada both 
boys and girls spent part of the period in seclusion fasting and dream- 
ing to establish communion with the unseen world; and those days 
and nights of solitude, of sleeping in lonely and often dangerous places 
awaiting a visitation from some unknown ]X)wer, exerted a ]:»owerful 
influence on their undeveloped minds, especially on those who were 
innately imaginative. The intensified training that accompanied or 
followed it increased the effect. Except among the Eskimo the two 
sexes now kept aloof from each otlier, the girls often remaining in 
partial seclusion until marriage. The boys joined the ranks of the 
men, entering their semi-military organizations on the plains, or being 
initiated into the secret religious societies on the Pacific coast. 
The days of their childhood had ended, but, subdued by their recent 
experiences and a little awed, perhaps, by the responsibilities of their 
new status, they kept unobtrusively in tlie background for a year or 
two until familiarity with their position brought back confidence and 
self-reliance. 
While adolescence seemed to the Indians a very critical period 
in the individual’s life, marriage occupied a rather secondary place. 
The natives had strong family affections and scorned the celibate 
state so common at higher levels of civilization. Wedlock, however, 
brought little romance in its train, for the parents who in most cases 
arranged the matches gave more consideration to rank and influence, 
or to skill and courage in hunting, than to the inclinations of the 
young people themselves. Youths generally married about the age 
of eighteen or nineteen years, girls two or three years earlier. Often 
they were betrothed while still children, sometimes even before they 
were born; but these early betrothals were seldom binding.^ The 
1 Except on tlic Pacific coast, \vhen the betrothal was ratifieil by an exchange of gifts. It could 
then be annulled only by a counterpayinent that was likely to provoke, ill-will. 
