This extraordinary formality is carried to a great length, and is very rigidly observed. If a person enters a dwelling in which his son-in-law is seated, the latter turns his back, covers his head with his robe, and avails himself of the first opportunity to leave the presence. If a person visit his wife, during her residence at the lodge of her father, the latter averts himself, and conceals his head with his robe, and his hospitality is extended circuitously by means of his daughter, by whom the pipe is transferred to her husband to smoke. Communications or queries intended for the son-in-law are addressed aloud to the daughter, who receives the replies of her husband. The same formality is observed by the mother-in-law; if she wishes to present him with food, it is invariably handed to the daughter for him, or if she happens to be absent for the moment, it is placed on {234} the ground, and she retires from the lodge, that he may take it up and eat it. A ten year's separation will not change this custom. The Pawnees have no such formality, and on that account are said to be great fools. A Frenchman, married and resident with the Omawhaws, one day inadvertently mentioned the name of his father-in-law, in presence of several people, who immediately declared him to be as great a fool as a Pawnee, thus to have so little respect for his father-in-law, as to treat him with as little ceremony as he would a dog. The more distinguished and respectable the parties are, the more rigidly is this rule observed; and if either of the parties should be treated otherwise, the departure from the observance would be regarded as a mark of disrespect for a trifling fellow. Fraternal affection is very strong and permanent. The chief and almost exclusive sources of infraction of this natural bias, are adultery with each other's wives, and conflicting intrigues for the attainment of the honour of a chieftain.