INHABITANTS OF PERU. 



quit the wife, and to seek another, whenever it is as agreeable to 

 him, as is, on the other hand, the companion of his bed. 

 The women, however, are commonly the last to break the 

 connubial chains. Finally, it would appear, that here the 

 conditions are equal. It is well known, that among the Turks, 

 Parthians, and other eastern nations, the balance inclines in 

 favour of the man, who, in his seraglio, represents a cock 

 surrounded by innumerable hens*. On the coast of Malabar, 

 the ascendancy is on the side of the females, who are affianced 

 to as many men as they please, and who even take them by 

 surprize in the streets. In that country, observes a sage, love, 

 in a physical point of view, has an irresistible force : the at- 

 tack is certain, and the resistance null. Man, without religion, 

 is capable of the greatest excesses. 



Idolatry being an evil of so ancient a date, that it is con- 

 jedtured by some writers to have been anterior to the flood ; 

 and so pestilent, that having contaminated the whole world, 

 it oppressed ancient Caria to such a degree, as to oblige the 

 inhabitants of Caunus to institute a strict search, in the course 

 of which, darting their javelins furiously in the air, they pur- 

 sued and banished from their conhnes the odious and trouble- 

 some gods whose worship did not permit them to respire ; it 

 is extraordinary that it is not to be found among the greater 

 part of the Indians of the mountains. They believe in one 

 God, on whom they bestow the human figure, and whom 

 they make to be the author of the earth, and of the heavens. 



* We are informed by Plutarch, that Surena, the Parthian general by whoax 

 Crassus was vanquished, had ten thousand wives who followed him to the war. 



N n whither, 



