252 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

Purchase was the universal means of obtaining a wife in the south. We
have already seen that the Hupa woman was paid for in native currency.
This consisted in dentalium shells and woodpecker scalps, which were given
to the party who had a right to dispose of her after a conference with the
father or some male relative of the young man, in the course of which the
price of the girl had been decided on.

Though the Navaho girls are betrothed at a very early age and some
are married while mere children, the more common age for first marriages is
from twelve to fifteen. The matches and terms of the contract are arranged
by the families of both parties, the bride’s maternal uncle fixing the dowry,
or, to be more exact, the amount to be paid by the bridegroom’s people,
that is, from five to fifteen horses, according to the standing of the girl’s
family or her own personal accomplishments.

Horses constitute also the recognized means of exchange for a wife
among the Apaches. Once the herd demanded has been delivered, the young
brave goes off with her without further ado.

Celebration of Marriage.

Not so, however, with their nearest congenerous neighbours, the Nava-
hoes. These people, owing to intermixture of blood with the surrounding
tribes and the peculiar receptiveness which characterizes the Dénés, are of a
mystical turn of mind, and as much addicted to ceremonies and transcen-
dentalism as their northern kinsmen are devoid of either. So, while in the
north no ceremonial of any kind attends the contracting of marriage, the
Navahoes would never think of entering so lightly into the bonds of wedlock.
Here is an account of their ritual on such occasions.

“On the night set for the marriage both families and their friends meet
at the hut of the bride’s family. Here there are much feasting and singing,
and the bride’s family make return presents to the bridegroom’s people, but
not, of course, to the same amount. The women of the bride’s family prepare
cornmeal porridge, which is poured into a saucer-shaped basket. The bride’s
uncle then sprinkles the sacred blue pollen of the larkspur upon the porridge,
forming a design as in the accompanying figure 69. The bride has hitherto
been lying beside her mother, concealed under a blanket, on the woman’s side
of the hut. After calling her to come to him, her uncle seats her on the west
side of the hut, and the bridegroom sits down before her, with his face
toward hers, and the basket of porridge set between them. A gourd of water
is then given to the bride, who pours some of it on the bridegroom’s hands
while he washes them, and he then performs a like office for her. With the
first two fingers of the right hand he takes a pinch of the porridge, just
where the line of pollen touches the circle of the east side. He eats this one
pinch, and the bride dips with her fingers from the same place. He then takes
in succession a pinch from the other places where the lines touch the circle