According to Dakota usage, either "bundles" of presents are exchanged by the interested families, or else the young man who wooes the maiden ties "a horse at her parents' door." On returning, if he finds the horse still there, he adds "another, keeping this up until" his "limit is reached." If the horses are taken away, he then enters "the lodge and takes his bride home." In case too high a price is demanded the lover tries elsewhere with his horses, unless, indeed, he entices the girl to elope with him; for "this is also recognized as a marriage."[599] In "choosing a helpmate or helpmates for his bed and board, the inland native" of the Columbian region "makes capacity for work the standard of female excellence, and having made an election buys a wife from her parents by the payment of an amount of property, generally horses, which among the southern nations must be equaled by the girl's parents.... To give away a wife without a price is in the highest degree disgraceful to her family."[600] Among the Indians of northern California likewise "marriage is sometimes essentially a matter of business. The young brave must not hope to win his bride by feats of arms or softer wooing, but must buy her of her father, like any other chattel, and pay the price at once, or resign in favor of a richer man. The inclinations of the girl are in nowise consulted; no matter where her affections are placed, she goes to the highest bidder." The social position of the bride depends upon the price she brings; and, as a natural result of the system, the "rich old men almost absorb the female youth and beauty of the tribe, while the younger and poorer men must content themselves with old and ugly wives. Hence their eagerness for that wealth which will enable them to throw away their old wives and buy new ones."[601] Among the California Karok, according to Powers, "a wife is seldom purchased for less than half a string" of dentalium shell, but "when she belongs to an aristocratic family, is pretty, and skilful in making acorn-bread and weaving baskets, she sometimes costs as high as two strings."[602] According to the same authority, among the Shastika in California a girl is bought "of her father for shell-money or horses, ten or twelve cayuse ponies being paid for a maid of great attractions;"[603] and the Navajo bridegroom of New Mexico will pay so exhorbitant a price as twelve horses only for a bride "possessing unusual qualifications, such as beauty, industry and skill" in her necessary employments.[604] [599] BECKWITH, "Customs of the Dakotahs," _Rep. Smith. Inst._, 1886, Part I, 255-57. Compare RIGGS, "Dakota Grammar," _Cont. to N. A. Eth._, IX, 205, 206. "Dowries" are exchanged among the Coast Indians: NIBLACK, _Rep. Smith. Inst._, 1888, _Nat. Mus._, 367, 368. Bundles of presents are used by the Abipones: KLEMM, _Kulturgeschichte_, II, 75, 76.