Female life among the Hurons had no bright side. It was a youth of
license, an age of drudgery. Despite an organization which, while it
perhaps made them less sensible of pain, certainly made them less
susceptible of passion, than the higher races of men, the Hurons were
notoriously dissolute, far exceeding in this respect the wandering and
starving Algonquins. [ 1 ] Marriage existed among them, and polygamy was
exceptional; but divorce took place at the will or caprice of either
party. A practice also prevailed of temporary or experimental marriage,
lasting a day, a week, or more. The seal of the compact was merely the
acceptance of a gift of wampum made by the suitor to the object of his
desire or his whim. These gifts were never returned on the dissolution
of the connection; and as an attractive and enterprising damsel might,
and often did, make twenty such marriages before her final establishment,
she thus collected a wealth of wampum with which to adorn herself for the
village dances. [ 2 ] This provisional matrimony was no bar to a license
boundless and apparently universal, unattended with loss of reputation on
either side. Every instinct of native delicacy quickly vanished under
the influence of Huron domestic life; eight or ten families, and often
more, crowded into one undivided house, where privacy was impossible,
and where strangers were free to enter at all hours of the day or night.

[ 1 Among the Iroquois there were more favorable features in the
condition of women. The matrons had often a considerable influence on
the decisions of the councils. Lafitau, whose book appeared in 1724,
says that the nation was corrupt in his time, but that this was a
degeneracy from their ancient manners. La Potherie and Charlevoix make a
similar statement. Megapolensis, however, in 1644, says that they were
then exceedingly debauched; and Greenhalgh, in 1677, gives ample evidence
of a shameless license. One of their most earnest advocates of the
present day admits that the passion of love among them had no other than