in our sense of the words.  The “husbands” the girls hunted for were boys of fourteen to sixteen, and the girls themselves began at twelve to thirteen years of age, or five years before they became mothers, and Fuegian marriage “is not regarded as complete until the woman has become a mother,” as Westermarck knew (22, 138).  In reality the conduct of these girls was nothing but wantonness, in which the men, as a matter of course, acquiesced.  The missionaries were greatly scandalized at the state of affairs, but their efforts to improve it were strongly resented by the natives.[232]

WHY INDIANS ELOPE

With the Abipones of Paraguay “it frequently happens,” according to Dobrizhoffer (207),

“that the girl rescinds what has been settled and agreed upon between the parents and the bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very mention of marriage.  Many girls, through fear of being compelled to marry, have concealed themselves in the recesses of the woods or lakes; seeming to dread the assaults of tigers less than the untried nuptials.”

The italics are mine; they make it obvious that the choice of the girls is not taken into account and that they can escape parental tyranny only by running away.  Among the Indians in general it often happens that merely to escape a hated suitor a girl elopes with another man.  Such cases are usually referred to as love-matches, but all they indicate is a (comparative) preference, while proving that there was no liberty of choice.  A girl whose parents try to force her on a much-married warrior four or five times her age must be only too glad to run away with any young man who comes along, love or no love.[233]

In the chapter on Australia I commented on Westermarck’s topsy-turvy disposition to look upon elopements as indications of the liberty of choice.  He repeats the same error in his references to Indians.  “It is indeed,” he says,

“common in America for a girl to run away from a bridegroom forced upon her by the parents, whilst, if they refuse to give their daughter to a suitor whom she loves, the couple elope.  Thus, among the Dakotas, as we are told by Mr. Prescott, ’there are many matches made by elopement, much to the chagrin of the parents.’”

The italics again indicate that denial of choice is the custom, while the elopement indicates the same thing, for if there were liberty of choice there would be no need of eloping.  Moreover, an Indian elopement does not at all indicate a romantic preference on the part of an eloping couple.  If we examine the matter carefully we find that an Indian elopement is usually a very prosaic affair indeed.  A young man likes a girl and wishes to marry her; but she has no choice, as her father insists on a number of ponies or blankets in payment for her which the suitor may not have; therefore the two ran away.  In other words, an