NORTHERN OCEAN 143 



weaker is frequently unwilling to yield, notwithstanding he is 1771. 

 greatly overpowered. When this happens to be the case, the " ^^' 

 relations and friends, or other bye-standers, will sometimes 

 join to persuade the weaker combatant to give up the contest, 

 lest, by continuing it, he should get bruised and hurt, without 

 the least probability of being able to protect what he is con- 

 tending for. I observed that very few of those people were 

 dissatisfied with the wives which had fallen to their lot, for 

 whenever any considerable number of them were in company, 

 scarcely a day passed without some overtures being made for 

 contests of this kind ; and it was often very unpleasant to me, to 

 see the object of the contest sitting in pensive silence watching 

 her fate, while her husband and his rival were contending 

 for the prize. I have indeed not only felt pity for those poor 

 wretched victims, but the utmost indignation, when I [107] have 

 seen them won, perhaps, by a man whom they mortally hated. 

 On those occasions their grief and reluctance to follow their 

 new lord has been so great, that the business has often ended 

 in the greatest brutality ; for, in the struggle, I have seen the 

 poor girls stripped quite naked, and carried by main force to 

 their new lodgings. At other times it was pleasant enough 

 to see a fine girl led off the field from a husband she disliked, 

 with a tear in one eye and a finger on the other : for custom, 

 or delicacy if you please, has taught them to think it necessary 

 to whimper a little, let the change be ever so much to their 

 inclination. I have throughout this account given the women 

 the appellation of girls, which is pretty applicable, as the 

 objects of contest are generally young, and without any 

 family : few of the men chuse to be at the trouble of main- 

 taining other people's children, except on particular occasions, 

 which will be taken notice of hereafter. 



Some of the old men, who are famous on account of their 

 supposed skill in conjuration, have great influence in persuad- 

 ing the rabble from committing those outrages ; but the 

 humanity of these sages is seldom known to extend beyond 



