Note 754 — Chapter V · NEW MEXICANS.

There is no marriage ceremony among the Navajoes 'a young man wishing a woman for his wife ascertains who her father is; he goes and states the cause of his visit and offers from one to fifteen horses for the daughter. The consent of the father is absolute, and the one so purchased assents or is taken away by force. All the marriageable women or squaws in a family can be taken in a similar manner by the same individual; i. e., he can purchase wives as long as his property holds out.' Bristol, in Ind. Aff. Rept. Spec. Com., 1867, p. 357; Marcy's Army Life, p. 49; Backus, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 214; Parker's Notes on Tex., p. 233.