its of clay, snowballs,
small sticks, or anything he may happen to have in his hand. If she
returns the compliment, he is encouraged to continue the farce, and
repeat it for a considerable time, after which more direct proposals
of marriage are made by word of mouth."]

Among the Ojibwe and Huron Indians of the Great Lakes the men
sometimes obliged their wives to bring up and nourish young bears
instead of their own children, so that the bears might eventually be
fattened for eating. If food was scarce, the women went without before
even the male slaves of the tribe were unprovided with food. Women
might never eat in the society of males, not even if these males were
slaves or prisoners of war. If food was very scarce, the husband as
likely as not killed and ate a wife; perhaps did this before slaying
and eating a valuable dog. (On the other hand, Mackenzie instances the
case of a woman among the Slave Indians who, in a winter of great
scarcity, managed to kill and devour her husband and several
relations.) So terrible was the ill-treatment of the women in some
tribes that these wretched beings sometimes committed suicide to end
their tortures. Even in this, however, they were not let off lightly,
for the Siou men invented as a tenet of their religion the saying that
"Women who hang themselves are the most miserable of all wretches in
the other world".

On the other hand, the kind treatment of children by fathers as well
as mothers is an "Indian" trait commented on by writer after writer.
Here is a typical description by Alexander Henry the Elder, concerning
the children of the Ojibwe tribe:

"As soon as the boys begin to run about, they are provided with bows
and arrows, and acquire, as it were 'by instinct', an astonishing
dexterity in shooting birds, squirrels, butterflies, &c. Hunting in
miniature may be justly said to comprise the whole of their education
and childish diversion. Such as excel in this kind of exercise are
sure of being particularly distinguished by their parents, and seldom
punished for any misbehaviour, but, on the contrary, indulged in every
degree of excess and caprice. I have often seen grown-up boys of this
description, when punished for some serious fault, strike their father
and spit in his face, calling him 'bad dog', or 'old woman', and,
sometimes, carrying their insolence so far as to threaten to stab or
shoot him, and, what is rather singular, these too-indulgent parents
seem to encou