QUARRELS. — WOMEN CLEANLINESS. 
553 
quarrelling, it must from this not be inferred that they never dis- 
agree ; for it appears that sometimes, though perhaps rarely, serious 
quarrels take place, and that these, not being on subjects personally 
affecting the Chief, are mostly terminated by fighting ; as their laws 
allow the private wrongs of families or individuals to be settled by 
the parties themselves. * 
Their 'wojtien appeared to deserve the character of exemplary 
modesty and of the greatest propriety of conduct ; as' far at least as 
my own observation and the assurances of others, enable me to give 
an opinion. They are said to be almost universally faithful wives ; 
and, that they shall be obedient ones, the men have taken sufficient 
precaution by establishing a law which permits a husband to put his 
wife to death for certain crimes or even for the offence of offerino- 
him personal violence, should he chuse to declare that she did so 
with murderous intention : while, at the same time, he retains for 
himself the privilege of committing those same misdemeanours with 
impunity. But no instance of such punishments ever came to my 
knowledge. To the ear of an Englishman, the assertion, that women 
are merely animals or beings of a rank much inferior to man, must 
sound truly savage : but this I have more than once heard asserted 
by Bachapins ; and hope, for the character of the whole tribe and for 
their own character as men, that it was said merely as a joke or for 
the purpose of misleading me. 
The great attention of the inhabitants of Litakun, to the removal 
of every thing unclean or dirty from their dwellings, constitutes a 
laudable part of their character, but is counterbalanced by a want of 
personal cleanliness : yet the necessity of greasing their bodies, to pro- 
tect their skin from the effects of a parching air, may be admitted as 
some excuse ; and the woolly and, if I may coin a word, uncombable 
nature of their hair renders it almost impossible, except by shaving 
their head, to free themselves from a disgusting nuisance which gene- 
rally extends itself also to their clothing. 
Among the vices of this people, a universal disregard for truth 
* A similar case has been mentioned in the first volume at page 373. 
VOL. ir. 4 B 
