296 
T^iilike the Al^onkians, the Ilurons deinanderl no period of servi- 
tude from a youth who sought a gii'l in marriage. He wooed her with 
presents, and, having gained her consent, obtained the consent of 
her parents,^ who invited the relatives and friends of both parties 
to the wedding feast. Every woman in the village presented the 
bride with a load of firewood, for unless the wedding took i)lace in the 
early sj)ring, she would have been hard presserl to gather fuel enough 
to supply the needs of her new household throughout the autumn 
and winter. Divorce was easy for l)oth sexes. Either might leave 
the other on any pi-etext whatever, the husband carrying away his 
tools and weapons, the wife her cooking pot and hoiisehokl utensils. 
Chris generally followed the mother in such cases, while the boys 
accompanied the father. 
If marriage seemed an affair of little moment, that could be 
passed over with a simple feast, death, on the contrary, called for 
elaborate rites to smooth the course of the soul in its after life. 
Unlike their near kinsmen, the Neutrals, who kept the corpse in the 
cabin until it no longer retained any semblance of humanity, the 
Hurons binled their dead almost immerliately, but buried with them 
also food, weapons, ornaments, and other articles whose outward 
forms had been valued in this life, and whose souls (since to the 
Hurons eveiy object, not man alone, possessed a soul) would be 
equally indispensable in the next. Fellow tribesmen suppliofl food 
to the relatives and mourners, and during the interment (or deposi- 
tion on a scaffold),- distributed presents to “wipe away tlieir tears.” 
For ten days thereafter the husband (or the wife) lay prone in the 
cabin eating sparingly of the meanest foorl; and for a year he re- 
mained in mourning, unable to remariy till the close of tliat period. 
Later, at the great Feast of the Dead already mentioned, the entire 
nation renewed its mourning and buried a large portion of its wealth 
in the public ossuaries, thereby enriching, as it believed, the souls 
of its dead by supplying their needs in the unseen home. 
With tlie Algoidvians to the north and east the Hurons main- 
tained a firm friendship; in fact they often gathered berries along 
the northeastern shores of Georgian bay in territory that strictly 
belonged to the Ojibwa. At one period they fought with their 
1 Perliaiis of lior mother only, who would consult oihrr women of lier elan. 
2 Babies, and |ierson,s killed in war, frozen to death, or drowned, were buried in the sirimnd, the 
babies alons some pathway in or'ler that they mit:ht be reincarnated in women pas.siiiK by. Alt 
others were wraiM’t’d in baik and deposited on a platform. “ .le.suit Relations,” vol. 10, p. 163, 269 f. 
