SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 99

 wife also advances and places himself at the side of his daughter. Then the
 boy says to his intended, IDo you wish to have nme for your husband?" She
 answers, I indeed wish it and I aini happy over it. Love me as much as I love
 you, for I. do not love and I will not love any except you." At these words the
 suitor covers the head of his affianced with the present which he has received
 from his father and says to her, I love you; that is why I take you for my
 wife, and here is what I give to your relations to purchase you." Then he gives
 the present to the girl's father.
 The husband wears a tuft on the top of his hair which hangs over his left
 ear, to which is attached a sprig of oak leaves, and in his left hand a bow and
 arrows. The tuft rising up witnesses that he ought to be the master, the oak
 sprig that he does not fear to go into the woods nor to lie outside in order to
 hunt. The bow and the arrows signify that he does not fear the enemy and
 that he will always be prepared to defend his wife and his children.
 The wife holds in her left hand a little branch of laurel, and in her right an
 ear of maize, which her mother has given her at the time when she received,
 with her father, the present from her husband. The laurel signifies that she will
 always preserve a good reputation, and the ear of maize that she will take care
 of the household and prepare her husband's meals.
 The married couple having said what I have just repeated, the girl lets the
 ear of maize which she held in her right hand fall, and presents it to her hus-
 band, who takes it also in his right hand, saying to her, I am your husband."
 She answers, "And I your wife." Then the husband goes to grasp the hands of
 all of his wife's family. Then he leads his wife to his family in order that she
 go through the same ceremony. Finally he conducts her toward his bed and
 says to her, That is our bed. Take care of it," which signifies that she is not
 to soil the nuptial couch.
 It is thus that native marriages are celebrated. I learned all these things
 from an old settler. The Tattooed-serpent allowed me to look on at one mar-
 riage. It is true that they ordinarily conceal themselves from the French, be-
 cause they are apt to laugh at the least thing which appears extraordinary to
 them. Besides, these people are no more able to accommodate themselves than
are all the other nations of the world to the liberties which the French take
everywhere away from home.
 After the marriage celebration there is made a feast. Then they play, each
according to sex and iage, and finally toward evening they begin to dance and
continue until daylight. The middle of the cabin is always free, because the
beds of the family are ranged lengthwise along the walls.a
 Except for the fact that it was indoors this dance is like those
described elsewhere.
 The differences between these various accounts may be explained
partly by the fact that they probably differed in elaborateness in the
different social ranks, especially as between the nobility and the com-
mon people, and partly because some writers had obtained fuller
information than others. Bearing, these points in mind, there is suffi-
cient agreement in outlines. The lack of ceremony in connection
with the marriages of chiefs is probably due to the fact that the
chiefs' wives were necessarily Stinkards, while the wives of many
of the male Stinkards were women of the nobility. The limitations

 a Du Pratz, list. de La Louisiane, II, 387-393.