Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-03-02
Marriage BY Force.

DR.. Frederick A. Cock tells Of lit
tle-known race of aborigines in an ar
tlcle in the Century Magazine for
March on 1.-The Giant Indians of Ter
ia del Fuego," whom he visited in the
Belgian Antartlc expedition. OF their
marriage customs he writes
Marriage, like almost everything
Ona, Is net fiXed by established rules.
1t is arranged and rearr.anged from
time to time to suit the convenience
of the contracting parties. Women
generally have very little to say about
1t. 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 neighboring clans of
their own tribe. The Onas, being by
for the most powerful 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 CIV
en- it as his opinion that plurality Of
wives is entirely satisfactory to their
peculiar emotions and habits of life.
The relation TO one another of the
women who possess but enc husband
in common in the family wlgwam is
of novel interest. AS a rule, they are
no more jealous than are the children
| in a civilized home circle. The prin-
cipal reason 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 a
family. If he proves himself good
hunter and a kind husband, the wife
persuades her sister to join the wig
wan and share her husbands affec-
tions. Frequently, when a girl is left
an orphan, she is tarken into a family
and trained to become the supplement
tary wife of her benefactor in after
own assigned position, always resting
in exactly in the same spot, with all of
her belongings about her The wealth
Of the household is not common to all
the occupants. Each woman has her
own basket of meat fragments CT
shellfish, her own bag with imple-
ments, needles, sinews and bits of fur,
and each wife has her own assemblage
of children.
The work of the man is strictly lin
tied to the chase. He carries his bow
and quiver of arrows, and his eye lis
ever on the horizon for game; but he
seldom stoops to anything like man
ual labor that is not connected 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 their earthly possessions,
pack them into a huge roll, and with
this firmly strapped across their backs
they follow the unencumbered 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-
| items of the house. The women Ger
tainly have all the uninteresting de-
tail and the drudgery CT life heaped
upon them, but they seem to enjoy it.
In defense of the men it should be said
| that they are worthy husbands. They
will fight fiercely to protect their
homes. and they will guard the honor
of their women with their own blood.
1t is a crying sin of the advance of
Christian civilization that this red
man of the far south should be COM
PEELED to lay down his life at the feet
Of the heartless pale-faced invaders to
shield the honor of his home