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128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 103
But when the little tell-tales skipped back to him from her fingers, followed
by a pair of black eyes peeping out from under their long, silken eye-lashes,
he joyfully comprehended the import and, in a few minutes, arose and, as he
started toward the door, he repeated his informal "Ea 11" (I go), upon
which a resix)use of assent was given by the father or mother in the equally
informal " Oraih " (very well).
He returned in two or three days, however, with a few presents for the
parents, and to secure their approval. Which, being obtained, a day was ap-
pointed for the marriage—a feast prepared and friends invited. When all
had assembled, the groom was placed in one room and the bride in another
and the doors closed. A distance of two or three hundred yards was then
measured off, and at the farther end a little pole, neat and straight, was set
up. Then, at a given signal, the door of the bride's room was thrown open,
and at once she springs out and starts for the pole with the lightness and
swiftness of an antelope. As soon as she has gotten a few rods the start,
enough for her to keep him from overtaking her if she was so inclined, the
door of his room was thrown open, and away he runs with seemingly superhuman
speed, much to tlie amusement of the spectators. Often, as if to try
the sincerity of his affection, she did not let him overtake her until within
a few feet of the pole ; and sometimes, when she had changed her mind in
regard to marrying him, she did not let him overtake her, which was public
acknowledgement of the fact, and the groom made the race but to be grievously
disappointed—but such a result seldom happened. As soon as he caught her,
after an exchange of a word or two, he gently led her back by the hand, and
[they] were met about half way by the lady friends of the bride, who took
her from the hands of the groom yielding to their demands with seeming
reluctance, and led her back into the yard to a place in front of the house
previously prepared for her, and seated her upon a blanket spread upon the
ground. A circle of women immediately formed around her, each holding
in her hands the various kinds of presents she intended to bestow upon her
as a bridal gift. Then one after another in short intervals began to cast her
presents on the head of the seated bride, at which moment a first-class grabgame
was introduced. For the moment a present fell upon her waiting head
it was snatched therefrom by some one of the party—a dozen or more making
a grab for it at the same instant—regardless of the suffering bride, who was
often pulled hither and thither by the snatchers' eager fingers becoming
entangled in her long, black ringlets. When the presents had all been thus
disposed of, the bride not receiving a single article, the twain were pronounced
one—man and wife; then the feast was served, after which all returned to
their respective homes with merry and happy hearts.
Cushman adds
As the land was free to all, the happy groom, a few days after his nuptials,
erected with the assistance of his friends, a neat little cabin in some picturesque
grove by the side of some bubbling spring or on the banks of some
rippling brook. A small iron kettle in which to boil their venison, and a
wooden bowl in which to put it when cooked, were sufficient culinary utensils
for the young house-keepers."
The same writer thus refers to the taboos between son-in-law and
mother-in-law already mentioned, and also those between husband
and wife
«« Cushman, Hist. Inds., pp. 369-370.