The Htjlorji of Book II. 



how to punifti this Crime, becaufe it reigned not among them 

 before their commerce with the Chriftians : but now if the 

 Husband furprifes his Wife proftituting her felf to fome other, 

 or have otherwife any certain knowledge of it, he does himfelf 

 juftice, and feldom pardons her, but difpatches her, fometimes 

 with his Club, fometimes by ripping up the upper part down- 

 wards with a tVafor or the tooth of an Agouty^ which is neer 

 as {harp. 



This execution being done, the Husband goes to his Father- 

 in-law, and tells him in cold blood, I have hilled thy Daughter 

 becaufe fie proved unfaithful to me : The Father thinks the acti- 

 on io juft , that he is fo far from being angry with him, that he 

 commends him, and conceives himfelf oblig'd : Thou haji done 

 well 3 replies he , Jhe deferved nolefs : And if he hath any more 

 Daughters to difpofe of, he immediately proffers him one 

 of them, and promifes to beftow her on him at thejirft oppor- 

 tunity. 



The Father marries not his own Daughter, as fome have af- 

 firmed 5 they abhor that crime, and if there have been any in- 

 ceftuous Fathers among them, they were forc'd to ablent them- 

 felves , for had they been taken by the reft, they would have 

 burnt them alive, or torn them into a thousand pieces. 



CHAP. XXIH. 



Of the birth and education of Children among the 

 Caribbians. 



THere is hardly any Cuftom among thefe poor Indians fa 

 brutifh,as that which they ufe at the birch of their chil- 

 dren 3 their wives are delivered with little pain, and if they 

 feel any difficulty, their recourfe is to the root of a certain 

 Rulh, out of which they get the juice, and having drunk it, 

 they are immediately delivered : Sometimes the very day of 

 their delivery, they go and wafti themfelves and the child at 

 the next River or Spring, and fall about their ordinary bufi- 

 Garcil.Lin- nefs.* The Peruvian , the Japonnefes, and the Brajilian women 

 cot. & De do the like 3 and it was ordinary among the Indians of Hijpa- 

 Laet. mola^ and the ancient Lacedemonians to wafh their children in 

 cold water, immediately after their birth, to harden their skins. 

 Pirard. The Maldivefes wafh theirs fo for feveral daics together 3 and 

 it is affirmed by fome, that the Cimbri were heretofore wont to 

 put thole little newly-born creatures into fnow, to accuftom 

 them to cold and hardfhip, and to ftrengthen their members. 



They 



