" She replied: "I
am thy wife." The bridegroom then went round and gave his hand to every
member of the family of his wife. He then took his bride by the arm and
led her around and she took the right hand of all the family of the
bridegroom. This done, he walked with her to his bed, and said: "This
is our bed, keep it undefiled."
There obtained among these primitive beings a most curious and most
disgusting custom. The young marriageable females were permitted to
prostitute themselves for gain, in order to provide a marriage portion;
and she who could thus enrich herself was the most distinguished and
the most sought. But after marriage, she was compelled to purity, both
by their laws and by public sentiment; and in all the intercourse of
the French with them, no instance of infidelity was ever known in a
wife.
The great sun was indeed their Lycurgus. If before his advent among
them they had any laws, these had become obsolete, and his edicts
adopted universally. Their traditions represent him as living to
extreme old age, seeing his descendants of the fourth generation.
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