243 Conjectures refpe&ing ihc 



another man by the confent of her hufband. Bat if {he does 

 fo without his knowledge he has a right to put her to death. 



Thefe accounts might be confidered as fabulous, were they 

 not confirmed by different authors ancient and modern, laity 

 a? well as clergy, fome of whom were eye-wrtneifes to what 

 they relate. Herodotus, fpeaking of the Thracians, fays that 

 they permitted their daughters to have promifcuous inter- 

 courfe with whomever they pteafed. We are told by the 

 fame author that it was a law among the Babylonians, that 

 all the women of the country fhoukl, once in their lives, ex- 

 pofe themfelves to the embraces of ftrangers in the temple of 

 Venus. Each fat in a particular place, feparated from the 

 other by a rope ftretched between them ; and durft not move 

 from her ftation till fome one threw a piece of gold into her 

 lap, and made her retire with him. The harulfome women 

 were foon engaged ; but the ngly fometimes remained a long 

 time, even three years, without being folicited by any one. 

 On this occafion, the prophet Baruch, a much older writer 

 than Herodotus, fays, that the one were foon fet at liberty, 

 but that the others, who were obliged to remain fitting, 

 were expofed to ridicule, becaufe they had not been thought 

 worthy of having their girdle unloofeel, Strabo gives exactly 

 the fame account of this circum (lance as Baruch and Hero- 

 dotus do. 



Another cuftom among the favages, no lefs lingular, 

 is what is called their marriage proof. In the kingdom of 

 Congo, in Africa, young people of both fexes beat each other, 

 in order to fee whether they can endure each other. Both 

 are equally at freedom to feparate, in cafe they do not fuit 

 each other. Ulloa mentions a like cuftom among the In- 

 dians of Quito. I remember to have read fomewhere that 

 this cuftom prevailed formerly in the Britiih iltes, and that 

 it is ftill pra&ifed in fome parts of Ireland and Scotland. 



Were I to enlarge further on this fubjecl:, a whole book 

 might be formed of the manners and cuftoms which the 

 Americans have in common with the people of other quarters 

 of the globe. But, that I may come nearer to the object 

 hi queftion, I mail here take a (hort view of the lingular 

 cuftoms which the Americans have in common with the 

 Chinefe and the inhabitants of thevveftern part of Africa ex- 

 ckifivefy. 



II. Comfarifon of the Americans with the Chinefe. 



i. The Peruvians had four grand feftivals in the courfe of 



the year; the principal of which was held at Cuflco, the ca- 



. pital of the country, immediately after the fotttice \ the fecond 



and 



