The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1900-04-28
WIVES BY FORCE.
TERRA del Fuegans Obtain
Their Helpmeets.

DIR. Frederick A. Cook tells of little
known race of aborigines in an article
in the Century Magazine on "The Giant
Indians of TERRA del Fuego," whom he
visited on the Belgian Antarctic expedi-
ton. OF their marriage customs he
writes:
Marriage, like almost everything
Ona, is not fixed by established rules.
1t is arranged and rearranged from
time to time to suit the convenience of
the contracting parties. Women gen.
orally have very little to say about it.
The bargain is made almost solely by
the men, and physical force is the prins
cipal 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 far
the most powerful Indians, have thus
been able to capture and retain lib
eral supply of wives. A missionary who
has been in constant contact with
these Indians for 80 years has given it
as his opinion that a plurality of wives
is entirely satisfactory to their Pc
culiar emotions and habits of life..
The relation to one another of the
women who possess but one husband
in common in the family wigwam is
of novel interest. AS a rule, they are
no more jealous than are the children
in q civilized home circle. The prin-
cipal reason for this is that the sew
eral wives are often sisters. A young
man takes by force, by mutual agree
ment, or by barter, the Oldest daughter
of family. If he proves himself
good hunter and kind husband, the
wife persuades her sister to join her
wigwam and share her husbands affec-
tions. Frequently, when girl is left
an orphan, she is taken into family
and trained to become the supplement
airy wife of her benefactor in after
years. In the hut each wife has her
own assigned position, always resting
in exactly the same spot, with all of
her belongings about her. @he wealth
of the household is not common to all
the occupants. Each woman has her
own basket of meat fragments or
shellfish, her own bag with implements,
needles, sinews and bits of, fur, and
each wife has her own assemblage of
children.
The work of the man is strictly linn
tied 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 anything like manual
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 of their earthly posses
sions, pack them into huge roll, and
with this firmly strapped across their
backs they follow the unencumbered
lead of their brave but ungallant hus-
bands. Thus the women carry, day
after day, not only all the household
furniture, but the children and the
portable portions of the house. The
women certainly have all the uninter-
esting details 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 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 compelled to lay down his
life at the feet of the heartless pale
faced invaders to shield the honor of
his home.