BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

278
JONH MCDONNELL
produce, such as their own hunt, &c., which they chiefly
deposit upon scaffolds raised a certain height above the earth,
so as to be out of the reach of wild beasts.
}[nrringes. The Indians of the Red or Assiniboil rivers, in general, have
no ceremonies in their marriages, or union of sexes. A young
man who has taken a Wiffl for the first time is under great
difficulties; out of modesty, bashfulness or custom, he appears
but seldom in his father-in-law's tent or lodge in the day time.
They always come to sleep with the bride after night fall and
retire at day break.
They hunt the ,,,hole, day to the emolument of their fatherin-law,
and in this servile condition they are obliged to remain
the space of a year, and sometimes longer if the bride does not
bring forth a son or a daughter to deliver the young Indian
from slavery. After that has taken place, he is at. liberty to
choose a home for himself, though he still remains in a manner
tributary to his father-in-law, and generally makes him some
present, according to his abilities, as often as they meet or see
each other.
Thus, daughters are as much esteemed as sons by the Indians,
and, indeed, they bring them much greater emoluments, for a
young man, as soon as he becomes husband, forsakes his
father's tent to which he seldom returns as an inmate,-for
women, in general, have a great ascendency over their husbands
and they always prefer living amongst those with whom they
have been accustomed from their childhood,-tho' sons are
much esteemed by them to make hunters and warriors, the two
great objects of all Indians.
The AssiniboineIndians.
The Assiniboils are numerous in the Red River, and are
divided into many tribes or families such as, Les gens des canats,
or the Canoe tribe; Les gens des titles, the Girls tribe; Les gens
dtb bois {art, or the Wood tribe, &c., &c., all speaking the same
language with the Sioux or Naudawessi, and originally a tribe