thalamium to the bride groom and the women to the bride; they danced and sang till night; and as soon as darkness succeeded the light of day, they presented the bride to the husband, and the ceremony was closed. The piaches had no right with respect to the first wives, who were exclusively legitimate; those whom they afterwards married were only adoptive or supernumerary. Men of distinction amongst them were very delicate with regard to their first alliance. To be worthy the hand of a chief, the wife must be descended of a family distinguished by the military exploits, or other remarkable actions, of some of her

ancestors.

Upon the borders of the Oronoko, these sorts of ceremonies are nearly the same. The only difference is in the kind of Epithalamia which some old dames sing to the young brides. Ah! my daughter, says one of them, what torment thou preparest for thyself! Hadst thou foreseen them, thou wouldst not have married. Ah! says another, couldst thou have believed, that in the conjugal state, thou wouldst pass a single moment without shedding tears of blood? The pains of childbed, says a third, are nothing compared to those with which thy husband shall afflict thee; he shall be thy tyrant and thou shalt be his victim.

Deplorable situation of the Women of Oronoko.

These predictions are but too well fulfilled; for besides what the women have to suffer amongst the H h

VOL. I.

savages in general, those of the Oronoko experience a treatment elsewhere unparalelled. The day of her nuptials is the last that a female of Oronoko has not to lament the unhappy lot of her sex. All domestic labours without exception form her task. The toil of culture and harvest must be performed by her hands. Neither the embarrassments of pregnancy, nor the duty of suckling her children, exempt her from any part of the painful toils which are imposed by the matrimonial state. She stands exposed to the heat of a scorching sun, to the torrents which rush from the sky, and she mingles her blood with her sweat, whilst her barbarous husband, supinely reclining in his hammock, smokes his segar, and copiously regales himself with spirituous liquors, without addressing a single word to his companion exhausted with fatigue. What do I say? this unfortunate creature is not only excluded from partaking of the repast which she has herself prepared, but, standing silently by him, she waits till her oppressor has finished his meal, in order to feed on the fragments. What an infamous abuse of the right of the stronger! European women, and particularly you, women of France, caressed in your infancy, adored in your youth, and respected in your old age, accustomed to be the life and object of pleasure, to distribute chains which the greatest heroes are proud to carry, to extend your protection to men, instead of being oblito court theirs, be grateful to the progress of civilization, for the vast difference between your state and that of the women of Oronoko.

The Otomaques are the only Indians who allow their women to join in their public diversions, but, notwithstanding they indulge them at intervals in this particular, yet, with respect to domestic drudgery, they place them upon the same footing with the rest. of their country, women.

Polygamy.

They are likewise the only Indians who have not admitted of polygamy. Among them Among them every husband is confined to one wife; and what is extraordinary, young men are always married to old women, and old men to young girls; for houshold affairs, in their opinion, are better managed, when the inexperience of youth is put under the direction of the prudence of old age.

All the other Indians take as many wives as they think proper, and their number does not in the smallest degree tend to mitigate the misery and oppression of their abject situation; it seems to be the whole object of their lives to support their common husband in idleness and drunkenness. The chiefs have most wives; and amongst some nations they are the only persons who have more than one.

Divorce.

It would not be expected that men, who entertain the most sovereign contempt for women, should attach much value to their fidelity, for, according to a maxim commonly received on the subject of love,

number was likewise destined for the labour of the fields, whose fruits were deposited in public granaries, in order to be afterwards divided by the chiefs. Never did an Indian of this tribe go two days successively to labour.

Exercise of Playing Ball amongst the Otomaques.

All the Otomaques whose turn it was not to go to the fishing, or labour of the day, went to the field to play ball, and did not quit till night. They played in a party of twelve against twelve, in a manner that deserves to be particularly mentioned here.

Their ball, which they still continue to use, is as big as the bowl used at mall. It is made of a kind of rosin which they call caocho. The slightest touch made it spring as high as a man. Striking it with the right shoulder, they kept it continually playing from side to side; nor were they allowed to touch it with any other part of the body without forfeiting a fifteenth, or, as it is expressed in their own language, a point. The wonder is, that in this manner they keep up the ball bounding and rebounding from alternate sides with as much ease and velocity as the Biscayans do with the hand. Nor are they inferior to them for the regularity and decency with which this diversion is conducted. Before they begin the game, they chuse judges who are to preside and to determine with respect to any differences or difficulties that may occur. in the course of the game; and their decisions are acquiesced in without murmur. Those who do not play, make bets, and thus every person who is present feels an interest in the play.

In the morning the women were engaged in manufacturing a coarse kind of earthen ware. Their most

curious workmanship consisted of mats, baskets, and very neat bags. The material they made use of for these was a kind of hemp, not unlike our colonial pite ; but finer. The tree which produced it was in their language called, marichi. At noon the women quitted labour and went to join their husbands in their diversion. They immediately took part in the game, ranging themselves twelve upon each side of the party already formed; so that by this addition they amounted in all to forty-eight persons engaged at once in the same game, and yet not the smallest confusion was to be seen amongst them. Each remained at his post and left to his neighbour the ball that came most convenient for his stand. The women played with a kind of battle-door, which they wielded with incredible dexterity.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the fishermen arrived with their canoes full of fish. Upon this the party at play immediately broke up; all went to wash themselves in the river, and afterwards retired to their respective homes. The women and children unloaded the boats, and carried the fish before the captain's gates, who distributed them amongst the several families in proportion to the number of their members. Then the village sat down to the only repast which they had made through the day, except some fruits and morsels of earth, of which we shall say more hereafter. After that, they went again and washed themselves; in the interim, night came on ; the dance commenced, and was not closed till mid