ppeared almost sublime. Opinions depend upon
habits and education.

The husband remains a whole year with his father-in-law, to whom belongs
by right the produce of his hunting, both skins and flesh. The year
expired, his bondage Is over, and he may if he wishes it, retire with
his wife to his own father's, or construct a lodge for his own use. The
hunter brings his game to his door, except when a heavy animal; there
ends his task; the wife skins and cuts it; she dries the skin and cures
the meat. Yet if the husband is a prime hunter, whose time is precious,
the woman herself, or her female relations, go out and seek the game
where It has been killed. When a man dies, his widow wears mourning
during two or four years; the same case happens with the widower, only
his duties are not so strict as that of a woman; and it often happens
that, after two years, he marries his sister-in-law, if there is any.
The Indians think it a natural thing; they say that a woman will have
more care of her sister's children than of those of a stranger. Among
the better classes of Indians, children are often affianced to each
other, even at the age of a few months. These engagements are sacred,
and never broken.

The Indians in general have very severe laws against murder, and they
are pretty much alike among the tribes; they are divided into two
distinct sections--murder committed in the nation and out of the nation.

When a man commits a murder upon his own people, he runs away from his
tribe, or delivers himself to justice. In this latter case, the nearest
relation of the victim kills him openly, in presence of all the
warriors. In the first case, he is not pursued, but his nearest relation
is answerable for the deed, and suffers the penalty, if by a given time
he has not produced the assassin. The death Is instantaneous, from the
blow of a tomahawk. Often the chief will endeavour to make the parties
smoke the pipe of peace; if he succeeds, all ends here; If not, a victim
must be sacrificed. It is a stern law, which sometimes brings with its
execution many great calamities. Vengeance has often become hereditary,
from generation to generation; murders have succeeded murders, till one
of the two families has deserted the tribe.

It is, no doubt, owing to such circumstances that great families, or
communities of savages bearing the same type and speaking the same
tongue, have been subdivided into so many distinct tribes. Thus it has
been