its until a second
meeting. Sometimes she does not see his face at all; and then she will
try to find out who he is and what he looks like before they meet again.
If he is not a desirable suitor, she will go with her chaperon and end
the affair there.

There are times when maidens go in twos, and then there must be two
young men to meet them.

There is some courtship in the night time; either in the early part of
the evening, on the outskirts of dances and other public affairs, or
after everybody is supposed to be asleep. This is the secret courtship.
The youth may pull up the tentpins just back of his sweetheart and
speak with her during the night. He must be a smart young man to do that
undetected, for the grandmother, her chaperon, is usually "all ears."

Elopements are common. There are many reasons for a girl or a youth to
defer their wedding. It may be from personal pride of one or both. The
well-born are married publicly, and many things are given away in their
honor. The maiden may desire to attend a certain number of maidens'
feasts before marrying. The youth may be poor, or he may wish to achieve
another honor before surrendering to a woman.

Sometimes a youth is so infatuated with a maiden that he will follow
her to any part of the country, even after their respective bands have
separated for the season. I knew of one such case. Patah Tankah had
courted a distant relative of my uncle for a long time. There seemed to
be some objection to him on the part of the girl's parents, although the
girl herself was willing.

The large camp had been broken up for the fall hunt, and my uncle's band
went one way, while the young man's family went in the other direction.
After three days' travelling, we came to a good hunting-ground, and made
camp. One evening somebody saw the young man. He had been following his
sweetheart and sleeping out-of-doors all that time, although the nights
were already frosty and cold. He met her every day in secret and she
brought him food, but he would not come near the teepee. Finally her
people yielded, and she went back with him to his band.

When we lived our natural life, there was much singing of war songs,
medicine, hunting and love songs. Sometimes there were few words or
none, but everything was understood by the inflection. From this I have
often thought that there must be a language of dumb beasts.

The crude musical instrument of the Sioux, the flute, was made to appeal
to t