k 



H U M A N SPECIES, 423 



Fuit hcec fapientia quQiidam. manners-- 



J- 



Concuhitu prohibere vago: dare jura mar it is.. 



HoRAT. Art. Poet 



But it Is remarkable, that though the female fex has ah'eady fo 



W 



much foftened the manners of their countrymen, there flill remain 

 feme flrokes in their cufloms, which feem to prove, that the fair fex 

 did not always enjoy that efteem and equality,, v/hlch is now allotted 

 to them. Wherever women in a nation are confidered as the drudges 

 of the family, there they muft he contented to take their viduals 

 feparately from their furly lords and hufbands *.. This inequitable 



•- 



cuftom, however, is univerfally received at Taheitee and its neigh^. 

 bourhood, and I was utterly unable to learn from them the true 

 origin or caufe of it 5 and in my opinion it is no more than a re- 



r 



mainder of that fubjedtion in which women formerly were held in 

 the Society-Ifles, before they came to their prefent improved con- 

 ditionv. 



The ftate of marriage ought likewife to engage our attention^ 



I 



as we are here treating of womerii. As far as we could obferve^ 



moim 



* halat obferved, that a negro-flave did not eat withhis wife and children j but afier he 

 was fatisfied, he gave them leave to eat likcivife ; andT^/r/i/y/i fbund the women. in Amboyna 

 ferving their hulbands at table, and eating afterwards in private. The. Guiana-men exclude 

 their women from their meals, and in the Caribbee Iflands women are not even permitted tQ 

 catinprefcnceof their hulbanc?«. "" ' ^'--^enAmmtiue^ 



