The birth of a bastard child entails little shame upon a girl, and that such children are not more frequent is due less to their chastity than to the means they employ to procure abortion. One of the reasons advanced for their early marriages is that the impetuosity of the girls would render it difficult to obtain a virtuous wife if the union was delayed. The confessions upon starting for war, or what is called the “war-path secret,” would also favor the opinion that abstract virtue is at a low ebb. At these times every warrior is required to relate to his companions each act of illicit intercourse he has committed since the last excursion, naming his partner, and enumerating the facts attending the frailty. This obligation is enforced by the most rigid oaths known to Indian customs.[356]
This immorality is not confined to the single women, for the squaws are, at times, as ready to take part in an intrigue as any in civilized nations. Beckwourth, whose experience of Indian manners seems to have embraced every conceivable phase of life, relates his adventures in this way:
“A brave named ‘Big Rain’ was elected chief of the village. He possessed a most beautiful squaw, who was the admiration of the young men, and all were plotting to win her from her lord. I determined to steal her, be the consequences what they might.” Having enticed the husband to a smoking-party, he says, “I went to Big Rain’s lodge, dressed and painted in the extreme of fashion, and saw the lady reclining upon her couch. She started up, saying, ‘Who is here?’ ‘Hush! it is I.’ ‘What do you want here?’ ‘I have come to see you because I love you.’ ‘Don’t you know that I am the chief’s wife?’ ‘Yes, I know it, but he does not love you as I do. I can paint your face and bring you fine horses, but as long as you are the wife of Big Rain he will never paint your face. With you by my side I could bring home many scalps. Then we could often dance, and our hearts would be merry.’ * * * * ‘Go, now,’ she pleaded, ‘for if my husband should return I fear he would kill you. Go, for your own sake and for mine.’ ‘No, I will not go till you give me a pledge that you will be mine.’ She hesitated for a moment, and then slipped a ring from her finger and placed it on mine. All I had to do now was to watch for a favorable chance to take her away. * * * * The appointed time had arrived, and on going to the place of assignation, I found the lady true to her word—in fact, she was there first. We joined the party, and were absent about a week. We succeeded in capturing (stealing?) one hundred and seventeen horses, and arrived safe with them in the camp. Meanwhile Big Rain discovered the loss of his wife. When we rode in, he took no part in the rejoicing, but ordered his wife and me to be surrounded, and, with half a dozen of his sisters, all armed with scourges, administered a most unmerciful whipping. I received it with Indian fortitude. If I had resisted, they would have been justified in killing me; also, if they had drawn one drop of blood, I should have been justified in taking their lives.”
Without wishing to delay the progress of the narrative, we can not resist the impulse to express admiration of the Indian punishment for a seducer of married women. Could the same unromantic penalty be duly and zealously inflicted for similar transgressions, in places of more pretensions, some of the scandals of civilized life would be curtailed. To resume:
“I sent word to the wife of Big Rain that I should go out again the next night, and should expect her company. She returned a favorable answer, and was faithful to her promise. On my return I received another such flogging as the first. Two nights afterward I started on a third expedition, my new wife accompanying me, and received a third sound thrashing from her husband. Finally, he grew furious; but my soldiers said to him, ‘You have whipped him three times, and shall whip him no more; we will buy your claim.’ He acceded to the offer, and consented to resign all interest and title in Mrs. Big Rain for the consideration of one war-horse, ten guns, ten chief’s coats of scarlet cloth, ten pairs of new leggins, and the same number of moccasins.”[357] This was not a bad remuneration for a faithless woman.
In another case an intrigue resulted tragically. One of the wives of a Minnetaree chief eloped with a man who had formerly been her lover. He deserted her in a short time. She returned to her father’s hut, whither her husband traced her. He walked deliberately into the hut, smoked quietly for a time, and then took her by the hair, led her to the door, and killed her with a single blow of his tomahawk.[358] The caprice or generosity of the same chief gave a very different conclusion to a similar incident which occurred some time afterward. Another of his wives eloped with a young man who was not able to support her as she wished, and both returned to the village. She presented herself before her husband and asked his pardon. He sent for the man, inquired if they still loved each other, and on their acknowledgment gave up his wife to her lover, made them a present of three horses, and restored them both to his favor.[359]
With the exception of some national customs, the outward life of the Indian is generally decent. A temporary interval of wild license, corresponding to the Saturnalia of the ancients, and called the festival of dreams, is common among the Canadian tribes. This carnival lasts fifteen days, and, laying aside all their usual gravity, they then commit every imaginable extravagance.[360] Our authority does not say whether immorality forms a portion of this relaxation, but from the custom of other bands it is not improbable. Lewis and Clarke mention several instances in which they were present at dancing and similar festivals, and witnessed exhibitions of the most foul and revolting indecency.
Mr. Catlin records his opinion that the Old World has very little of superior morality or virtue to hold as an example to the North American Indians, and we are not inclined to enter into any long comparison of the races. The manners of each have been described; and while it would be unjust to expect the untutored son of the forest to display as much delicacy as his more cultivated fellow-men, it would be equally ungenerous to assert that the white female population, as an aggregate, are governed by the impulses which apparently sway the Indian woman.
But whatever doubts there may exist as to the immorality of the Indian women in their natural state, all are entirely removed as soon as they come in contact with the white race. Those in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada have rapidly learned the worst of vices. They are drunken, sensual, and depraved. The venereal disease commits frightful ravages among them; in fact, most of their sickness arises from excess of one kind or another. Maclean, in his “Twenty-five years’ Service in Hudson’s Bay,” says that the men employed by the company are reconciled to their hard employment and poor remuneration by the immorality of the women, of whom numbers are prostitutes, selling themselves for the smallest remuneration. On the Northwest Coast chastity is scarcely even a name. The sea tribes are the most licentious, and at some places, where ships touch for supplies, hundreds of women come down to the beach, and by indecent exposures of their persons endeavor to obtain permission to come on board. Sir George Simpson received a visit from a chief who wanted to negotiate the loan of Lady Simpson, and offered his squaw in temporary exchange.
Many of the traders on the Upper Missouri, from motives of policy, connect themselves with women of the tribes. The most beautiful girls aspire to this station, which elevates them above their ordinary servile occupations. These engagements are not marriages in our sense of the word; a price is paid for the girl, and she is transferred at once to the trader’s house. With equal facility he can annul the contract, for which her father is not sorry, as he is thus enabled to sell her over again. The tariff of prices will range from two horses to a handful of awls: such is the remuneration for which an Indian chief will prostitute his daughter. It must be added that occasionally the couple live permanently together as man and wife, the possibility of their doing so being always supposed in the first instance.