delicacies, this unfailing respect for the established place and
possessions of every other member of the family circle, this
habitual quiet, order, and decorum.

Our people, though capable of strong and durable feeling, were
not demonstrative in their affection at any time, least of all in
the presence of guests or strangers. Only to the aged, who have
journeyed far, and are in a manner exempt from ordinary
rules, are permitted some playful familiarities with children and
grandchildren, some plain speaking, even to harshness and
objurgation, from which the others must rigidly refrain. In short,
the old men and women are privileged to say what they please and
how they please, without contradiction, while the hardships and
bodily infirmities that of necessity fall to their lot are softened
so far as may be by universal consideration and attention.

There was no religious ceremony connected with marriage among
us, while on the other hand the relation between man and woman was
regarded as in itself mysterious and holy. It appears that
where marriage is solemnized by the church and blessed by the
priest, it may at the same time be surrounded with customs and
ideas of a frivolous, superficial, and even prurient character. We
believed that two who love should be united in secret, before the
public acknowledgment of their union, and should taste their
apotheosis alone with nature. The betrothal might or might not be
discussed and approved by the parents, but in either case it was
customary for the young pair to disappear into the wilderness,
there to pass some days or weeks in perfect seclusion and
dual solitude, afterward returning to the village as man and wife.
An exchange of presents and entertainments between the two families