s her kinsfolk with his game.

At the next midsummer the parents on both sides are made acquainted
with the betrothal, and they at once begin preparations for the coming
wedding. Provisions and delicacies of all kinds are laid aside for
a feast. Matosapa's sisters and his girl cousins are told of the
approaching event, and they too prepare for it, since it is their duty
to dress or adorn the bride with garments made by their own hands.

With the Sioux of the old days, the great natural crises of human life,
marriage and birth, were considered sacred and hedged about with great
privacy. Therefore the union is publicly celebrated after and not before
its consummation. Suddenly the young couple disappear. They go out into
the wilderness together, and spend some days or weeks away from the
camp. This is their honeymoon, away from all curious or prying eyes. In
due time they quietly return, he to his home and she to hers, and now at
last the marriage is announced and invitations are given to the feast.

The bride is ceremoniously delivered to her husband's people, together
with presents of rich clothing collected from all her clan, which she
afterward distributes among her new relations. Winona is carried in a
travois handsomely decorated, and is received with equal ceremony.
For several days following she is dressed and painted by the female
relatives of the groom, each in her turn, while in both clans the
wedding feast is celebrated.

To illustrate womanly nobility of nature, let me tell the story of
Dowanhotaninwin, Her-Singing-Heard. The maiden was deprived of both
father and mother when scarcely ten years old, by an attack of the Sacs
and Foxes while they were on a hunting expedition. Left alone with her
grandmother, she was carefully reared and trained by this sage of the
wild life.

Nature had given her more than her share of attractiveness, and she was
womanly and winning as she was handsome. Yet she remained unmarried for
nearly thirty years--a most unusual thing among us; and although she had
worthy suitors in every branch of the Sioux nation, she quietly refused
every offer.

Certain warriors who had distinguished themselves against the particular
tribe who had made her an orphan, persistently sought her hand in
marriage, but failed utterly.

One summer the Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes were brought together under
a flag of truce by the Commissioners of the Great White Father, for
the purpose of making a tr