NORTHERN OCEAN. 
i Their marriages are not attended with any ce- 
| remony; all matches are made by the parents, or 
next of kin. On thofe occafions the women feem 
to have no choice, but implicitly obey the will of 
their parents, who always endeavour to marry 
their daughters to thofe that feem moft likely to 
be capable of maintaining them, let their age, per- 
fon, or difpofition be ever fo defpicable. 
The girls are always betrothed when children, 
but never to thofe of equal age, which is doubt- 
lefs found policy with people in their fituation, 
where the exiftence of a family depends entirely 
on the abilities and induftry of a fingle man. 
Children, as they juftly obferve, are fo liable to 
alter in their manners and difpofition, that it is 
impoflible to judge from the actions of early youth 
what abilities they may poflefs when they arrive 
at puberty. For this reafon the girls are often 
fo difproportionably matched for age, that it is 
very common to fee men of thirty-five or forty 
years old have young girls of no more than ten 
or twelve, and fometimes much younger. From 
the early age of eight or nine years, they are pro- 
hibited by cuftom from joining in the moft inno- 
cent amufements with children of the oppofite 
fex; fo that when fitting in their tents, or even 
when travelling, they are watched and guarded 
with fuch an unremitting attention as cannot be 
exceeded by the moft rigid difcipline of an Englifh 
boarding-fchool. Cuftom, however, and conitant 
example, make fuch uncommon reftraint and 
confine- 
Qik 
