“The happy pair had just entered upon the honeymoon.  They would stretch a buffalo robe upon poles, so as to protect them from the fierce rays of the sun, and, spreading beneath this rough canopy a luxuriant couch of furs, would sit affectionately side by side for half a day, though I could not discover that much conversation passed between them.  Probably they had nothing to say; for an Indian’s supply of topics is far from being copious.”

MUSIC IN INDIAN COURTSHIP

Inasmuch as music is said to begin where words end, we might expect it to play a role in the taciturn courtship of Indians.  One of the maidens described by Mrs. Eastman (85) “had many lovers, who wore themselves out playing the flute, to as little purpose as they braided their hair and painted their faces,” Gila Indians court and pop the question with their flutes, according to the description by Bancroft (I., 549): 

“When a young man sees a girl whom he desires for a wife he first endeavors to gain the good-will of the parents; this accomplished, he proceeds to serenade his lady-love, and will often sit for hours, day after day, near her house playing on his flute.  Should the girl not appear, it is a sign that she rejects him; but if, on the other hand, she comes out to meet him, he knows that his suit is accepted, and he takes her to his house.  No marriage ceremony is performed.”

In Chili, among the Araucanians, every lover carries with him an amatory Jew’s-harp, which is played almost entirely by inhaling.  According to Smith

“they have ways of expressing various emotions by different modes of playing, all of which the Araucanian damsels seem fully to appreciate, although I must confess that I could not.

“The lover usually seats himself at a distance from the object of his passion, and gives vent to his feeling in doleful sounds, indicating the maiden of his choice by slyly gesturing, winking, and rolling his eyes toward her.  This style of courtship is certainly sentimental and might be recommended to some more civilized lovers who always lose the use of their tongues at the very time it is most needed.”

“Sentimental” in one sense of the word, but not in the sense in which it is used in this book.  There is nothing in winking, rolling the eyes, and playing the Jew’s-harp, either by inhalation or exhalation, to indicate whether the youth’s feelings toward the girl are refined, sympathetic, and devoted, or whether he merely longs for an amorous intrigue.  That these Indian lovers may convey definite ideas to the minds of the girls is quite possible.  Even birds have their love-calls, and savages in all parts of the world use “leading motives” a la Wagner, i.e., musical phrases with a definite meaning.[243]

Chippewayan medicine men make use of music-boards adorned with drawings which recall special magic formulae to their minds.  On one of these (Schoolcraft, V., 648) there is the figure of a young man in the frenzy of love.  His head is adorned with feathers, and he has a drum in hand which he beats while crying to his absent love:  “Hear my drum!  Though you be at the uttermost parts of the earth, hear my drum!”