During this play the Indians appear to be greatly agitated, and at every decisive throw set up a hideous shout. They make a thousand contortions, addressing themselves at the same time to the bones, and loading with imprecations the evil spirits that assist their successful antagonists. At this game some will lose their apparel, all the moveables of their cabins, and sometimes even their liberty, notwithstanding there are no people in the universe more jealous of the latter than the Indians are.
CHAPTER XII.
Of their Marriage Ceremonies, &c.
THE Indians allow of polygamy, and persons of every rank indulge themselves in this point. The chiefs in particular have a seraglio, which consists of an uncertain number, usually from six to twelve or fourteen. The lower ranks are permitted to take as many as there is a probability of their being able, with the children they may bear, to maintain. It is not uncommon for an Indian to marry two sisters; sometimes, if there happen to be more, the whole number; and notwithstanding this (as it appears to civilized nations) unnatural union, they all live in the greatest harmony.
The younger wives are submissive to the elder; and those who have no children, do such menial offices for those who are fertile, as causes their situation to differ but little from a state of servitude. However they perform every injunction with the greatest cheerfulness, in hopes of gaining thereby the affection of their husband, that they in their turns may have the happiness of becoming mothers, and be intitled to the respect attendant on that state.
It is not uncommon for an Indian, although he takes to himself so many wives, to live in a state of continence with many of them for several years. Such as are not so fortunate as to gain the favour of their husband by their submissive and prudent behaviour, and by that means to share in his embraces, continue in their virgin state during the whole of their lives, except they happen to be presented by him to some stranger chief, whose abode among them will not admit of his entering into a more lasting connection. In this case they submit to the injunction of their husband without murmuring, and are not displeased at the temporary union. But if at any time it is known that they take this liberty without first receiving his consent, they are punished in the same manner as if they had been guilty of adultery.
This custom is more prevalent among the nations which lie in the interior parts, than among those that are nearer the settlements, as the manners of the latter are rendered more conformable in some points to those of the Europeans, by the intercourse they hold with them.
The Indian nations differ but little from each other in their marriage ceremonies, and less in the manner of their divorces. The tribes that inhabit the borders of Canada, make use of the following custom.
When a young Indian has fixed his inclinations on one of the other sex, he endeavours to gain her consent, and if he succeeds, it is never known that her parents ever obstruct their union. When every preliminary is agreed on, and the day appointed, the friends and acquaintance of both parties assemble at the house or tent of the oldest relation of the bridegroom, where a feast is prepared on the occasion.
The company who meet to assist at the festival are sometimes very numerous; they dance, they sing, and enter into every other diversion usually made use of on any of their public rejoicings. When these are finished, all those who attended merely out of ceremony depart, and the bridegroom and bride are left alone with three or four of the nearest and oldest relations of either side; those of the bridegroom being men, those of the bride, women.
Presently the bride, attended by these few friends, having withdrawn herself for the purpose, appears at one of the doors of the house, and is led to the bridegroom, who stands ready to receive her. Having now taken their station on a mat placed in the centre of the room, they lay hold of the extremities of a wand about four feet long, by which they continue separated, whilst the old men pronounce some short harangues suitable to the occasion.