mily relations, particularly with the women, engross the whole amount
of their sensibilities.

The marriage connection is a sacred and indissoluble tie. I have read,
in a recent report to the Historical Society of Wisconsin, that, in
former times, a temporary marriage between a white man and a Menomonee
woman was no uncommon occurrence, and that such an arrangement brought
no scandal, I am afraid that if such eases were investigated, a good
deal of deceit and misrepresentation would be found to have been added
to the other sins of the transaction; and that the woman would be found
to have been a victim, instead of a willing participant, in such a
connection.

At all events, no system of this kind exists among the Winnebagoes. The
strictest sense of female propriety is a distinguishing trait among
them. A woman who transgresses it is said to have "forgotten herself,"
and is sure to be cast off and "forgotten" by her friends.

The marriage proposed between the young officer and the daughter of
Day-kau-ray, was understood as intended to be true and lasting. The
father would not have exposed himself to the contempt of his whole
nation by selling his daughter to become the mistress of any man. The
Day-kau-rays, as I have elsewhere said, were not a little proud of a
remote cross of French blood which mingled with the aboriginal stream in
their veins, and probably in acceding to the proposed connection the
father of Agathe was as much influenced by what he considered the honor
to be derived as by the amount of valuable presents which accompanied
the overtures made to him.

Be that as it may, the poor girl was torn from her lover, and
transferred from her father's lodge to the quarters of the young
officer.

There were no ladies in the garrison at that time. Had there been, such
a step would hardly have been ventured. Far away in the wilderness, shut
out from the salutary influences of religious and social cultivation,
what wonder that the moral sense sometimes becomes blinded, and that the
choice is made, "Evil, be thou my good!"

The first step in wrong was followed by one still more aggravated in
cruelty. The young officer left the post, as he said, on furlough, but
_he never returned_. The news came after a time that he was married, and
when he again joined his regiment it was at another post.

There was a natural feeling in the strength of the "woe pronounced
against him" by more tongues than one. "He will never,"