Note 586 — Chapter IV · RISE OF THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
Reading edition
Among the Siouan peoples "the mother-in-law never speaks to her son-in-law, unless on his return from war he bring her the scalp and gun of a slain foe, in which event she is at liberty from that moment to converse with him."—Dorsey, "Siouan Sociology," XV. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 241, 242. Read especially Dorsey's very interesting account of this custom in his "Omaha Sociology," ibid., III, 262, 263; and compare Beckwith, "Customs of the Dakotahs," Rep. Smith. Inst., 1886, Part I, 256, 257; and Long, Expedition, I, 253, 254.
It exists likewise in Australia: Mathew, "Aust. Aborigines," Jour. R. S. N. S. Wales, 408, 409; Dawson, Aust. Aborigines, 29; among the Kafirs and Bushmans: Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrikas, 114, 445; in China: Smith, Village Life in China, chap. xxiii; in general, Hellwald, Die mensch. Familie, 289, 290; Lippert, Kulturgeschichte, II, 93; and Crawley, Mystic Rose, 391-414, passim.