bate od 
and fhould have taken its rife in a period when the ‘world was 
yet in its infancy, or that ‘the relations of Diodorus and of 
Plutarch, which, confidering the times of which they treat, might, 
with much appearance of reafon, be deemed fabulous, fhould be 
corroborated, and, as it were, authenticated by a cuftom at this 
day fubfifting. 
I sHovip not perlaps have hazarded giving to the public a 
relation of fo extraordinary a nature, had the facts, as I had fup- 
pofed when upon the fpot my notes were taken, refted folely 
upon my teftimony, but, having lately found with much fatif- 
faGtion that this fingular cuftom is mentioned, though by no 
means detailed either in its circumftances or moral confequences, 
in the Letters concerning Greece, written from Conftantinople by 
Monfieur de Guys, under the title of “ Voyage Litteraire.” Iam 
the rather emboldened to venture the above detail of an ufage, 
the exiftence of which has been thus authenticated, though, from 
want of fufficient information, it has been flightly and fuperficially 
treated ; neither can I help exprefling my furprife that a matter fo 
fingular in the hiftory of mankind fhould have been deficient in 
point of evidence, or fhould have efcaped the notice of fuch 
travellers as have fpent much time in thefe iflands, and confe- 
quently have had every opportunity of accurate inveftigation— 
Monf. de Guys, in the prefent inftance, did not moft certainly 
poffefs this advantage, not having, as he tells us, been able to 
verify the fact: “ Comme dans le cours de fes voyages il n’a fait 
* qu’ aborder a cette ifle, et n’y ayant pas fait de Sejour.” He 
had however been informed that in the ifle of Metelin, “ Toutes 
“ les proprietés et tous les immeubles appartiennent aux filles, et a 
“Ja 
