e kind of law to settle disputes and
controversies, whether of a public or private nature, and I remember
once, in the very early days of Minnesota, of witnessing a test which
bore a close resemblance to a trial by jury, and involved an important
question of individual character which would have been classified under
our jurisprudence as an action of slander. It occurred among the Sioux
Indians, and presented many features of much interest that made an
impression on me which I have never forgotten. The whole proceeding was
absolutely natural and aboriginal in its character and conduct, and free
from the technicalities which sometimes obstruct the progress of the
administration of justice in modern times.

It is well known that the value of the testimony of a witness depends
very much upon his demeanor and manner of delivering it in court, and
that the judge usually tells the jury that they must take these matters
into consideration in giving it its true weight; but in the case I am
about to relate there was nothing but the appearance and manner of the
witnesses testifying upon which to base a judgment of their truth or
falsity, and it was this novel feature that lent additional and peculiar
interest to the controversy.

The Sioux Indians have a rude kind of jurisprudence which gets at the
truth by a sort of natural intuition, and the case I witnessed convinced
me that justice had been reached with more certainty than in nine out of
ten of our jury trials. We have all heard of trial by battle, under the
old English law, and the trial of witches by water, where, if they sank
and drowned they were innocent, and if they floated they were guilty and
were hanged. But this trial was based on public sentiment or the ability
of bystanders to detect guilt or innocence from the appearance and
conduct of the litigants during the trial, which, although a crude
method, is, in my judgment, much safer than some of those practised by
our ancestors at no very remote date.

The trial I refer to is called the "Virgin Feast." It is brought about
in this way: Some gossip or scandal is started in a band about one of
the young women. It reaches the ears of her mother. In order to test its
truth or falsity, the mother commands her daughter to give a "Virgin
Feast." The accused cooks some rice, and invites all the maidens of the
band to come and partake. They appear, each with a red spot painted on
each cheek, as an emblem of virginity. They s