The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1900-05-05
MARRIAGE BY FORCE.
| Indians Of rtsrra Del FueEo Take As-
yantags Of Their stren ptI,. 81

Indians OF Nterra Del FueEO Take AsS-
vantage OF Their strength.
s DR.. Frederick As. Cook tells Of little
known race Of aborig ines in an article.
in the Century magazine for March
on The Giant Indians Of TERRA del
5Fuego,,' whom he visited on the Bel
fgian antarctic expedition. Of their
marriage customs he writes: Mar
riage, like almost every thing Ona, is
not fixed by esta blished rules It is
arranged and rearranged from time to-
time to suit the convent of the
contra citing parties. The bargain is.
made almost solely by the men, and
physical force is the principal bond of
union. For ages the strongest bucks
have been accustomed to steal women
from neighboring tribes, and from
neigh boring clans of their own tribe.
The The Onas, being by far the most pow
erful Indians, have. thus been able TO-
capture and retain a liberal supply Of
wives A missionary who has been in
constant contact with these Indians
for thirty years has given it as his
opinion that a plurality Of wives is
entirely satisfactory to their peculiar
emotions and habits Of life.k The rela-s
ton to one another of the women who
possess but one husband in common
in the family wigwam is Of novel in-s
terest. AS a rule, they are no more
Jealous than are the children in civil
lized home circle. The principal rea-s
son for this is that the several wives
are often sisters. A young man takes
by force, by mutual agreement, or by
barter, the oldest daughter of family.
# he proves himself a good hunter and
kind hus sband, the wife persuades her
sister to join her WigWam and share
her husbands affections. frequently,
when a girl is left an orphan, she is
taken into a family and trained to be-
come the supplementary wife Of her
benefactor in after years. In the hut
each wife has her own assigned posi-
tion, always resting in exactly the
same spot, with all of her belongings
about her. The wealth Of the house
hold is not common to all the occu.
pants. Each woman has her own bas-
ketSof meat fragments or shellfsh, her
own bag with implements, needles,
sineWs and bits Of fur, and each wife
has her own assent blage of children.
The work Of the man is strictly limit
ed to the chase. He carries his bow
and CULVER of arrows, and his eye is
ever on the horizon for game; but he
seldom stoops to any thing like manual
labor that { nected with The.
actual necessities Of the chase. He
kills the game, but the wife must carry
it into camp. In moving, the women
take up all of their earthly possessions,
pack them into a huge roll, and with
this firmly strapped across their backs
they follow the ,unincumbered lead of
their brave but ungallant husbands.
Thus the women carry, day after day,
not only all the household furniture,
but the children and the portable por-:
tions OF the house. The women GER
tainly have all the uninteresting detail
and the drudgery of life heaped upon
them, but they seem to enjoy it. In
defense of the men it should be said
that they aresWorthy husbands. They
will fight fercelya to protect their
homes, and they will guard the honor
of their women with theirSoWn blood.
It is a crying sin of the advance of
Christian civilization that this red man
Of the far south should be compelled
to lay down his life at the feet of the
heartless pale-faced invaders to shield
the honor OF his home. = !: .ss &.