Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-06-27

around and saw that the whole family were
upand gone. | hurried out and found the
chief and all his relations gathered in front
of the tepee. Soon from a distant parr of
the village the groom appeared, followed by
the bride. No sooner was he in hearing dis
lance than he was greeted with full chorus
of ~ on cruel, bad man, You have made our
hearts ache" What is the matter now?
he said You have stolen the flower of
the nation" they chorused in reply.
Nonsense said he: "she is neither
pretty nor smart. She will not bring wood
or water What are you making a fuss
about?" 1 would not have taken fifty
ponies for her. said the father. " would
not give a pair of blankets for her, " said the
groom II certainly would not take less
than forty-fiye ponies for her" " l would
not give two ponies for such Z wife! and
so on till ten ponies, dozen pairs OF
blankets, some pounds of vermilion red
and other property were agreed upon as
the purchase price The poor girl stood
behind her new lord, with downcast looks
while the bargaining was going on. When
that was concluded, the groom proudly took
her by the hand and led her up 10 the
group. Then from every tepee in the village
peopierushed up and cried out: How how,
how, cousin How, how, how, nephew
ship under the sun.
The poor girl was neglected except by her
father and Little Thunder. The former
strUked her head affectionateiy and talked
TO her in a low tender voice. The latter
was brought up on a stretcher, and took
her by the hand and called her
" daughter" The eagerness of every
body to claim relationship is eX-
planned by the fact that the groom had
to invite all the relatives Of both families
to q three-days' feast. Ii cost him 4 small
Sioux fortune to get his Redbird," but
he seemed proud and happy with her.
When we rode away an hour later,
the wedding dance had already COM
menced, to the measured cadence of
song, sung by Mahreta and number of
her young friends, and the whole village
was making merry and rejoicing over the
marriage Of their two favOrites. | saw
MahTeta two years after, with tive children,
OF whom she was rs fond Us any mother
could be. She proudly BROUGHT them to
me and asked me what | thought of her
two little Redbirds
We wonder at such wooings and we'd
dings, but they are similar to those preya-
lent among many people all over the
earth. There was a stage in the history of
every race when there was no courtship;
when the taiTest belonged to tie strongest
and bravest, with or without her consent.
If q man wanted q wife, he fought
for her, and captured her if he was
strong enough and brave enough. He
knew no other way Of winning her AS
the race advanced, this remained only rs a
symbol. In Central India this affected force
| is still used in marriage ceremonies, and 1t
is still TO be seen in the Malay Peninsula.
Among the kalmucks the girl is put on a
richly caparisoned horse and she rides off,
and the lover follows on another horse, and
if she allows him to overtake and capture
her, she becomes his wife. If she dislikes
him, she can easily elude him Among
the Mongo!s the girl hides with some rela-
tives of the family and when the lover and
his friends find her, there is q
noisy shtm battle for her, which ends
by her being carried away, seemingly by
force. Marriage by this pretended capture
prevails among the natives of Siberia. I'm
France down TO the seventeenth century ii
was customary for the bride 10 feign reiuc-
lance 20 enter the bridegroom'S house"
Among the Welsh til the early part of this
century there was q sham fight for the
bride. Sir John Lubbock and McLennan,
authorities on this subject, think that the
throwing the slipper after the bride and
groom is 4 symbol of the former
use of more dangerous weapons
Our ancestors may have done as Mapaluta
did waylaid their sWeetheart5 as they re-
turned from the fountain or stream, gently
OBTAINING them by force, telling the story of
their love in spite of pretended coyness and
indifference carrying them Off without
ceremony, paying round sum for them,
and considered them cheap al that. IF they
did, and if they We're as happy % Mapaluta
and Mahreta seemed to DO, theirs were not
bad wOoings and weddings.
Sad changes for these wild but brave peo-
pie have comesin the long years that have
interviewed. Their hunting grounds have
passed from them forever. Their great
villages oftepees have vanished, their bands
Of horses have gone the red glare Of their
signal fires no longer sends the braves to
battle: the echoes OF their war cries arc no
longer heard, and the wooings by the bub-
bling springs are few and far between. All
that concerns them Will soon remain only
in story. Spotted Tail and Little Thunder
have long since Joined the great warriors
and mighty hunters Of their nation in the
happy hunting grounds" Mapaluta and
Mahreta sit in their almost solitary tepee
with no hope for the little Redbirds that
play around them.