MARRIAGE. 245

my brethren, her broad flat face, small eyes, high cheek-bones, low forehead,
broad chin, hooked nose, tawny hide, and pendent breasts, and you will say
with me she is the very essence of perfection. Only perceive what strength
She exhibits: a weight of two hundred pounds is nothing for her to carry;
and as for hauling up a sledge, she will vie with any of the tribe’ 1.

Now, whether the esthetic sense of the natives has improved with contact
with people of other ideals, or perhaps because the above portraits partake
more or less of the nature of a caricature, it is certain that in the west they
could not pass for faithful pictures of a typical Indian belle. There an oval
face with big black eyes, very long and narrow eyebrows, abundant hair, low
forehead, light complexion, big fatty cheeks, well developed bust with prominent
breasts, and especially hips as broad as possible would pass for the non plus
ultra of feminine beauty.

Two points are especially considered great desiderata: the length of the
face and the breadth of the body. Grown up children as the Dénés are, it is
in the heat of a dispute that the women betray their inmost sentiments; and
their ideas on external appearances are fully shared by the male population.
“You lynx!” is a most cruel insult, because of the roundness of that animal’s
face; but the offended party will not fail to retort, unless the reproach be
evidently unmerited: “you grass blade”! a term of vituperation which is scarcely
less stinging, as a blade of grass is so slender and narrow.

But in polygamistic marriages there is no question that less showy qualities
were formerly more in demand. Physical strength and laboriousness stood a
better chance of winning the sympathies of man, especially if he was such
a good hunter that he needed the services of many arms. Matonabbee, the
great chief who accompanied Hearne in his last and only successful attempt
to reach the Arctic Ocean, may be considered a typical Indian, and a good
judge of the requisites of a woman. Now he “prided himself much in the
height and strength of his wives, and would frequently say few women would
carry or haul heavier loads; and though they had, in general, a very mascu-
line appearance, yet he preferred them to those of a more delicate form and
moderate stature” .

Betrothing and Courting.

“Les Tartares se marient trés jeunes et toujours sous l’influence des
parents”, says Huc in his invaluable book of travel through Asia’. The same
is true of the immense majority of the Dénés, or at least of the girls among
them. Mere children of ten or twelve were often given away as wives when
the bid for them was sufficiently tempting. An occurrence which took place
on the shores of Lake Superior had no doubt many counterparts in the wilds

1 “Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean”, vol. IJ, p. 44.

? Op. cit., p. 88.
3 Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie’, vol. I, p. 297.