HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



99 



marriage between perfons related in the firffc degree of 

 confanguinity or alliance, was ftri&ly forbid, not only 

 by the laws of Mexico, but alfo by the laws of Michua- 

 can, unlefs it was between coulins (m). The parents 

 were the perfons who fettled all marriages, and none 

 were ever executed without their eonfent. When a fon 

 arrived at an age capable of bearing the charges of 

 that ftate, which in men was from the age of twenty to 

 twenty-two years, and in women from lixteen to 

 eighteen, a fuiteble and proper wife was fingled out 

 for him ; but before the union was concluded on, the 

 diviners were confulted, who, after having conlldered 

 the birth-day of the youth, and of the young girl in- 

 tended for his bride, decided on the happinefs or un- 

 happinefs of the match. If from the combination of 

 figns attending their births, they pronounced the alli- 

 ance unpropitious, that young maid was abandoned, and 

 another fought. If, on the contrary, they predicted 

 happinefs to the couple, the young girl was demanded 

 of her parents by certain women amongft them called 

 Cihuatlanque^ or folicitors, who were the mod elderly 

 and refpeftable amongft the kindred of the youth. Thefe 



women 



(m) In the ivth book, tit. 1. of the third provincial council of Mexico, it 

 is fuppofed that the Gentiles of that new world married with their lifters; but 

 it ought to be underftood, that the zeal of thofe fathers, was not confined in its 

 exertions to the nations of the Mexican empire, amongft whom fuch marriages 

 were not fuffered, but extended to the barbarous Chechemecas, the Panu- 

 chefe, and to other nations, which were extremely uncivilized in their cuf- 

 -toms. There is not a doubt, that the council alluded to thofe barbarians, who 

 were then (in 1585), in the progrefs of their converfion to ChrilUanity, and 

 not to the Mexicans and the nations under fubjeclion to them, who many 

 years before the council were already converted. Befides, in the interval of 

 four years, between the conqueft of the Spaniards and the promulgation of the 

 gofpel, many abulive practices had been introduced among thofe nations never 

 before tolerated under their kings, as the religious miffionaries employed ifl 

 Jheir converfion atteft. 



