Their connubial attachments are often very strong. {214} An Omawhaw and his squaw, on a solitary hunting expedition, were discovered at a distance from their temporary lodge, by a Sioux war-party. They endeavoured to escape from the enemy, but the squaw was soon overtaken, struck to the ground, and subjected to the terrible operation of scalping. The husband, although at this time beyond the reach of the balls and arrows of the Sioux, seeing his squaw in their hands, immediately turned upon them, and drawing his knife, the only weapon he had, furiously rushed amongst them, in order to revenge the death of his squaw, even with the inevitable sacrifice of his own life; but he was almost immediately despatched, without having accomplished his heroic purpose. In the young squaw, the catamenia, and consequent capability for child-bearing, we were informed, takes place about the twelfth or thirteenth year, and the capacity to bear children seems to cease about the fortieth year; but as superstitious notions prevent these Indians from taking any note of their ages, these periods are stated with some hesitation. When the married squaw perceives that the catamenia does not recur at the expected period, she attaches a small leathern string to her girdle, and ties a knot in it, to note the incipient state of pregnancy, and another knot is added at termination of each successive moon, as a register of its progress. When the squaw perceives the approach of this depurating process, she retires from her family, and erects a little shelter of bark or grass, supported by sticks, properly arranged, where she makes a fire, and cooks her victuals alone. She is thus compelled by custom to absent herself until the expiration of four days, when she returns to her lodge. During this time she must not approach or touch a horse, as the {215} Indians believe that such contamination would impoverish that animal. They sometimes retire, and build their little shelter under a false pretext, when the real object is to favour the approach of some esteemed lover, to whom the vigilance of the husband has denied any other means of obtaining a stolen interview. The squaw has no need of propitiating the goddess Manageneta,[5] but during pregnancy continues her usual avocations, and even in its most advanced stage, she neither bears a lighter burden on her back, nor walks a shorter distance in a day, than she otherwise would; neither does she expose herself the less on that account to the inclemencies of the weather. [5] Mana Genita, or Genita Mana, in ancient Italian mythology the goddess who presided at the birth and death of human beings.—ED.