The Chawanon Indians, inhabiting the lake of Marcotti, and who are
considered the most warlike and civilized of the American Indians, have
a manner of courtship which we believe to be peculiar to themselves.
When such of their young women as have pretensions to beauty, attain
their twelfth year, which is the usual period of their marriage, they
either keep themselves quite secluded at home, or when they go out
muffle themselves up in such a manner, that nothing is seen but their
eyes. On these indications of beauty, they are eagerly sought in
marriage, and those suitors who have acquired the greatest reputation
as warriors or hunters, obtain the consent of the family. After this,
the lover repairs to the cabin, where the beauty is lying enveloped on
her couch. He gently approaches and uncovers her face, so that his
person may be seen, and if this be to her mind, she invites him to lie
down by her side; if not, she again conceals her face, and the lover
retires. A husband has the privilege of marrying all his wife’s sisters
as they arrive at age, so that after, often before, his first wife is
thirty, he has married and abandoned at least a dozen.