rom their respective tents to an
open part in the centre of the camp. The chiefs and warriors being here
assembled to receive them, a party of the latter are drawn up into two
ranks on each side of the bride and bridegroom, immediately on their
arrival. The principal chief then acquaints the whole assembly with the
design of their meeting, and tells them that the couple before them,
mentioning at the same time their names, are come to avow publicly their
intention of living together as man and wife. He then asks the young
people alternately whether they desire that the union may take place.
Having declared, with an audible voice, that they do so, the warriors
fix their arrows, and discharge them over the needs of the married pair;
this done, the chief pronounces them man and wife. The bridegroom then
turns around, and, bending his body, takes his wife upon his back, in
which manner he carries her, amidst the acclamations of the spectators,
to his tent. The ceremony is concluded by the most plentiful feast the
new-married man can afford, and songs and dances, according to the usual
custom, conclude the festival.

Among the Quapaws, as I have been informed, the husband, on the
consummation of his marriage, presents his wife with a leg of deer, and
she in return offers him an ear of maize.

THE IDOLS.

A TRADITION OF THE RICARAS.

"Whither goest thou, valiant warrior?
Whither goest thou, Son of the Beaver?
Man whom the Mahas fear;
Man whom the Pawnees shun;
Man of the red and painted cheek;
Man of the fierce and fearful shout;
Whither goest thou?"
"I go to make an offering,
I go to give to the Idols a bow,
An arrow, and a spear,
The Man, and Woman, and Dog of Stone,
That stand on the willow bank,
On the willow bank, that o'erlooks the stream,
The shallow and turbid stream;
I go to ask that my heart may be made,
Like the heart of the panther, fierce and stout,
And my soul as clean as the soul of a child,
And my foot as swift as the foot of a buck,
That victory may be mine,
That the pole of my lodge may bend with scalps,
And the song of my lips
Be the song of a Brave,
Who sings of bright deeds in the ears of his tribe."
"Go! Warrior, go!"

"Whither goest thou, Hunter?
Whither goest thou, keen eyed-man?
Man whom the Beaver fears;
Man whom the Panther shuns;
Man of the fleet and ardent f