Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1885-04-30
arab winnemuca in San Francisco Call.

Piute Courtship.
Sarah winnemuca in San Francisco Call
Piute courtship lacks freedom, and yet
it is not devoid of that intense excitement
that attends lovo-making the world over.
You may suppose that the girls and
young men would steal out of their lodg-
es moonlight nights and have clandes-
tine meetings and WOO In that way, but
they never dare to do it. Indeed,
they never speak together. A word
never passes between them. But still
girl very soon knows when young man
is interested in her. He tries to catch
her attention by his Craftsmanship, or his
skill with the bow, or his athletic ac-
complishments. He rides by her at
furious speed and returns again and
again. In this way he attracts her atten-
ton, and informs her, although he does
not speak word, that he loves her and
would like to marry her. But this does
not comprise all of his courtship. At
night when the Indians have retired to
their wigwams and are sleeping, the
young man rises from his bed OF leaves
and skins and goes to the lodge occupied
by the girl he loves. He enters silently
and sits down beside her couch. Alodge
is circular in shape, and at night when
the inmates 60 to bed they heap brush
wood and logs on the fire IN the center
of the tent, and then lie down with their
feet toward the fire and their heads to-
ward the outside OF circumference OF the
wigwam. The Indians sleep on leaves
and robes and are covered when sleeping
with skins. AS the young man enters
the lodge he can see by the freight
where the young girl is sleeping and he
goes directly to her side, often stepping
over other sleepers, and sits down by her
bed. It is customary for the young girl
to sleep near her grandmother, who is
expected to rest lightly after the girl has
made her debut. AS soon as she sees
the young man enter she wakens the girl,
who rises and goes to where her mother
is sleeping and lies down beside her.
AS soon as she does this the young man
rises and goes out as silently as he came
in.
Not word is spoken. He does not
touch the girl, while he is sitting by
her side as she sleeps. Her grand
mother does not speak word of en-
couragment to him, neither does her
mother indicate that he is q welcome
sutton. The next night he comes again
and takes up his position beside the
girl, and keeps this up for long time.
During all the time he is counting in
this way he is treated as an absolute
stranger by the girls relations They
may have entertained him before he
begun his attention to the girl; her
brothers may have hunted with him and
shared the game with him, but when he
once begins to WOO the girl all famil-
iarity and friendship ceases. He Is
never invited TO eat of food prepared by
the family of the girl, and her brothers
never offer him anything on the hunt.
His presence is wholly ignored. If the
girl does not like him she tells her
grandmother, and when the young man
comes again ut night, that good old lady
rises from her bed, takes handful Of
hot ashes from the fire and throws them
in his face. That's the mitten. If he
persist in his attentions and continues
to come again aId again, the whole
family unite in heaping indignities upon
this. Her brothers and sisters and
father aud mother throw ashes upon
him, dowse him with water, flagellate
him with stout switches and drive him
from the lodge. Sometimes an Indian
persists, in spite of such assaults, and
goes again and again to the tent where
the girl is sleeping. Sometimes his
perseverance wins her heart but
not often.
If the girl likes him and is willing
to marry him, then she tells her grand
mother, who informs the girls father.
If the family think it is q suitable
match the father invites the young man
to the tent and asks him, in the presence
of the girl, if he loves and will take
good care of her. Then the father asks
the girl is she loves the young man,
and tells her the duties of n wife. IL
both say they love each other, the two
become engaged, but even after that
they do not talk together, neither do
they go about together. A day is fixed
for the wedding. A great feast is
prepared. The relatives of the girl and
the young man sit around great camp
fire together, tho young man and the
girl sitting side by side. The food is in
baskets. The girl has carefully cooked
basket of food for her intended hus-
band, and as she hands it to him he
seizes her wrist with his right hand and
takes the basket with his left. That is
the marriage ceremony. The girls
father then pronounces them man and
wife, and they 90 to lodge, where