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tremity : thai his sensibihty is keen, even the warriors 

 weeping most bitterly on the loss of their children, 

 thongh in ge?ieral they endeavour to a])pear superior to 

 human events: that his vivacity and activity of mind is 

 equal to ours in the same situation ; hence his eagerness 

 for hunting, and for games of chance. The women are 

 submitted to unjust drudgery. This I believe is the case 

 with every barbarous people. With such, force is law. 

 The stronger sex therefore imposes on the weaker. It 

 is civilization alone which replaces women in the en- 

 joyment of their natural equality. That first teaches 

 us to subdue the selfish passions, and to respect those 

 rights in others which we value in ourselves. Were 

 we in equal barbarism, our females would be equal 

 drudges. The man with them is less strong than with 

 us, but their women stronger than ours ; and both for 

 the same obvious reason ; because our man and their 

 woman is habituated to labour, and formed by it. With 

 both races the sex which is indulged with ease is least 

 athletic. An Indian man is small in the hand and 

 wrist, for the same reason for which a sailor is large 

 and strong in the arms and shoulders, and a porter in 

 the legs and thighs. They raise fewer children than 

 we do. The causes of this are to be found, not in a 

 difference of nature, but of circumstance. The women 

 very frequently attending the men in their parties of war 

 and of hunting, child-bearing becomes extremely incon- 

 venient to them. It is said, therefore, that they have 

 learned the practice of procuring abortion by the use of 

 some vegetable; and that it even extends to prevent 

 conception for a considerable time after. During these 

 parties they are exposed to numerous hazards, to ex- 

 cessive exertions, and to the greatest extremities of 

 hunger. Even at their homes the nation depends for 

 food, through a certain part of every year, on the glean- 

 ings of the forest : that is, they experience a famine 

 once in every year. With all animals, if the female be 



friend : before you get at him, you must kill me.' On which 

 ihey returned, and ihe council respected the principle so much as 

 to recede from their determination. 



