not
demonstrative in their affection at any time, least of all in the
presence of guests or strangers. Only to the aged, who have journeyed
far, and are in a manner exempt from ordinary rules, are permitted
some playful familiarities with children and grandchildren, some plain
speaking, even to harshness and objurgation, from which the others must
rigidly refrain. In short, the old men and women are privileged to say
what they please and how they please, without contradiction, while the
hardships and bodily infirmities that of necessity fall to their lot are
softened so far as may be by universal consideration and attention.

There was no religious ceremony connected with marriage among us, while
on the other hand the relation between man and woman was regarded as in
itself mysterious and holy. It appears that where marriage is solemnized
by the church and blessed by the priest, it may at the same time be
surrounded with customs and ideas of a frivolous, superficial, and even
prurient character. We believed that two who love should be united in
secret, before the public acknowledgment of their union, and should
taste their apotheosis alone with nature. The betrothal might or might
not be discussed and approved by the parents, but in either case it was
customary for the young pair to disappear into the wilderness, there
to pass some days or weeks in perfect seclusion and dual solitude,
afterward returning to the village as man and wife. An exchange of
presents and entertainments between the two families usually followed,
but the nuptial blessing was given by the High Priest of God, the most
reverend and holy Nature.

The family was not only the social unit, but also the unit of
government. The clan is nothing more than a larger family, with its
patriarchal chief as the natural head, and the union of several clans by
intermarriage and voluntary connection constitutes the tribe. The very
name of our tribe, Dakota, means Allied People. The remoter degrees of
kinship were fully recognized, and that not as a matter of form only:
first cousins were known as brothers and sisters; the name of "cousin"
constituted a binding claim, and our rigid morality forbade marriage
between cousins in any known degree, or in other words within the clan.

The household proper consisted of a man with one or more wives and their
children, all of whom dwelt amicably together, often under one roof,
although some men of rank and position provided