The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-01

| such law is an actual necessity III pllill- | tive societies.
 1 The complications brought about by 1 this particular condition are many anu various An accidental meeting, for eN- ample, is very awkward for both. 1T i other Indians are present, frantic warn 1 ings to hide himself are shouted to the man. and if he is on horseback he Will strike out as if for his life, The woman 1 is warned and threatened and if possl- | ble hurried off and concealed behlnd f0 rock or bush If no way of escape IS possible, the man drops down upln the l ground, huddled up into as small space as possible, and, drawing ms 1 blanket over his head, remains thus ] hidden until the danger is past. Snoulu l a woman who is mother in-laW eaten glimpse at a distance of her dauSn- l ter's husband she will dart off to one side like a Frightened rabbit and crouch l down behind some bush or grovel on the 1 ground while the man passes by With his face turned away. Even in those | cases where for good cause separation l between man and wife has taken place' the taboo still remains in full erect The position of the man who has seVe- ral wives and has perhaps discarded l two or three-not an unusual case-ahd 1 has perhaps half dozen mothers-lh- l law, who might crop out in the most uh- expected places, is certainly not an en- | viable one. The boasted freedom or the savage is to him cruel myth, for he it remembered he most firmly believes | that should be so much as look upon the mother of one of his women the results will be most disastrous to him.
 The sympathes of the people are with the man. and every effort is made to protect him from the baleful influences arising from the proximity of his moth- er-in-law. Should he visit house 1 where she is, although 1t is her own, the woman must retire when he is seen ap- preaching, and must remain outside and hidden until he leaves. No matter IT the weather be bitterly cold, no matter if the nearest neighbor be miles away, such is the law, and such the practice
 Some of the side effects, as 1t were, of this custom are peculiar. The silver smith of the tribe a man of high intel ligence and a leader among his fellows wealthy and wishing several wives, ap- parently devoted much thought to the problem. His business brought nm into contact with many thousands or Indians, and he was unwilling to place himself in a position where he might be compelled at any foment to drop ! everything and run for shelter. He solved the problem in a way very satis- factory to him by marrying three sis ters.
 nfb l.. is shocking to us, but to the Indian ap- pears not only proper but an easy soiu- tion of perplexing problem. It IS not at all uncommon for Navojo to marry a woman and her daughter. Of course he takes the mother, usually an elderly woman. first. and the daughter next, all | though negotiations for both are carried on at the same time. By this expedient he obtains the woman he wants with no mother-in-law appendage.
 Tn his eyes all women are to be cher ished, not from any chivairous regard for the sex but because the old women assume largely the care of the children and because all women, young and old, are Weavers and the Well-knoWn Na- vaio blankets. the manufacture or | which is now a considerable industry, are made by the women. When q wo- | man dies her man does not speak Of what she has done for him or the chill dren she has bore him, but only that she was good blanket weaver. He mourns the loss of d valuable and pro- ductive machine.
 The Navajo women mature early ana also fade early Girls are usually soid in marriage at fourteen or t1fteen years of age, but they are often reserved
 when but nine or ten years old by q part payment, Eventually as civiliza- ltion progresses no doubt the sewing ma chine plan will be introduced, and a man will be able to pay for his wife in monthly instalments
 On the Navajo reservation there are conparatively few squaw men-white men who marry Indian women and thereby attain certain rights in the tribe. Tn such cases the usual price Is fifty dollars, paid in cash to the broth CTS and uncles of the woman, and not in horses, which constitutes the sole and exclusive legal tender when the tran saction is between Indians. Very much ] higher prices than this are sometimes realized In one instance a White trader offered three hundred dollars in cash and goods for a young woman-- and a grass widow at that The offer was declined. Her people wanted three hundred and fifty dollars, and had the man not died at this point in the nego- tiations the sale would have been made
 To the squaw men the mother-in-law taboo is not matter of firm belief as it is to the Indians-at least not at first but they are ready subscribers to the doctrine
 When white man marres an Indian woman he nearly always discovers that he has married her entire family, male and female, to the extent at least of providing food for them, and he is not 10th to adopt custom which, aside from it's other advantages reduces the number of his new family. But were 1t not otherwise, and the white man cher ished and honored his mother-in-laW and considered it privilege to converse with her, his example would have no ef- feet on these Indians. They have long ago reached that stage in belief when diverse examples have no effect, where l they think white man may do the most grotesque things-things which would be fatal to an Indian-such, for example, as eating fish, and without eff feet upon himself To the Navajo the evil effects which would follow any in tercourse with his mother-in-law are as