“Manjikuawis was forward in her advances toward him.  He, however, paid no attention to it, and shunned her.  She continued to be very assiduous in attending to his wants, such as cooking and mending his mocassins.  She felt hurt and displeased at his indifference, and resolved to play him a trick.  Opportunity soon offered.  The lodge was spacious, and she dug a hole in the ground, where the young man usually sat, covering it very carefully.  When the brothers returned from the chase the young man threw himself down carelessly at the usual place, and fell into the cavity, his head and feet remaining out, so that he was unable to extricate himself.  ‘Ha! ha!’ cried Manjikuawis, as she helped him out, ’you are mine, I have caught you at last, and I did it on purpose.’  A smile came over the young man’s face, and he said, ‘So be it, I will be yours;’ and from that moment they lived happily as man and wife.”

It was a common thing among various Indian tribes for the women to court distinguished warriors; and though they might have no choice in the matter, they could at any rate place themselves temptingly in the way of these braves, who, on their part, had no occasion to be coy, since they could marry all the squaws they pleased.  The squaws, too, did not hesitate to indulge, if not in two husbands, in more than one lover.  Commenting on the Mandans, for instance, Maximilian Prinz zu Wied declares (II., 127) that “coyness is not a virtue of the Indian women; they often have two or three lovers at a time.”  Among the Pennsylvania Indians it was a common thing for a girl to make suit to a young man.

“Though the first address may be by the man, yet the other is the most common.  The squaws are generally very immodest in their words and actions, and will often put the young men to the blush.  The men commonly appear to be possessed of much more modesty than the women.” (Bancroft, II., 140.)

Even a coating of culture does not seem to curb the young squaw’s propensity to make the first advances.  Captain R.H.  Pratt (U.S.  Geol. and G.S., IX., 260), of the Carlisle School, relates an amusing story of a Kiowa young man who, under a variety of circumstances, “never cared for girl.  ’But when Laura say she love me, then I began to care for girl.’”

In his First Footsteps (85, 86) Burton gives a glimpse of the “coyness” of Bedouin women: 

“We met a party of Esa girls, who derided my color and doubted the fact of my being a Moslem.  The Arabs declared me to be a shaykh of shaykhs, and translated to the prettiest of the party an impromptu proposal of marriage.  She showed but little coyness and stated her price to be an Andulli or necklace, a couple of Tobes—­she asked one too many—­a few handfuls of beads, and a small present for her papa.  She promised, naively enough, to call next day and inspect the goods.  The publicity of the town did not deter her,