Page 87

   THE BATTLE FOR THE APRON.
VARIOUS tribes of Indians have various modes of
punishments for the various violations of their
laws; but it is only among the Indians of the far West
where it is left for the women of the tribe to punish
the males for certain injuries received.  Perhaps it
would be a good idea to introduce this custom among
the whites, in which case unprincipled men would be
brought to feel the full force of injured innocence, and
society would be greatly benefited even by the intro-
duction of new ideas more radical than our own, re-
specting the punishment of men for a crime, which
needs only the Indian mode of treatment to effect a
positive cure. Let us admit that we can learn some-
thing even from the savages. A writer for the New
York Sun, pens the following as occuring at Poplar
river, Montana, among a tribe of Indians known as
the Yanktonais:
  " Recently there was witnessed here one of the most
singular scenes of Indian life-the punishment by four
Indian girls, the daughters of Polecat, of a young Indian
hunter who had assaulted one of their number." The
following description is that of an eye witness:
  "The tribe forms a huge ring in which the savage
who provoked the animosity of the Polecat family, is
summarily thrust. He looks sullen and dogged. He
has a hard fight before him, and he knows it; but he is
a man of his hands, and he means to wear those girls
out if it lies in his muscle and prompt and effectual
work. He may strike them anywhere above the breast,
                        87