304 LAWSON'S HISTORY 



of them related to one another, then they look out 

 for husbands and wives amongst strangers. For 

 if an Indian lies with his sister, or any very near 

 relation, his body is burnt, and his ashes thrown 

 into the river, as unworthy to remain on earth ; 

 yet an Indian is allowed to m'arry two sisters, or 

 his brother's wife. Although these people are 

 called savages, yet sodomy is never heard of 

 amongst them, and they are so far from the prac- 

 tice of that beastly and loathsome sin, that they 

 have no name for it in all their language. 



The marriages of these Indians are no farther 

 binding than the man and woman agree together. 

 Either of them has liberty to leave the other upon 

 any frivolous excuse they can make, yet whoso- 

 ever takes the woman that was another man's be- 

 fore, and bought by him, as they all are, must cer- 

 tainly pay to her former husband whatsoever he 

 gave for her. Nay, if she be a widow, and her 

 husband died in debt, whosoever takes her to wife 

 pays all her husband's obligations, though never 

 so many ; yet the woman is not required to pay 

 anything, unless she is willing, that was owing 

 from her husband, so long as she keeps single. 

 But if a man courts her for a night's lodging and 

 obtains it, the creditors will make him pay her 

 husband's debts, and he may, if he will, take her 

 for his money, or sell her to another for his wife. 

 I have seen several of these bargains driven in a 

 day ; for you may see men selling their wives as 

 men do horses in a fair, a man being allowed not 



