162 
NEW-EN GLANDERS. 
Strangers are received and entertained among them with a great dea. 
of artless sincerity, and friendly, unformai hospitality, and remark 
with pleasure the honest and decent respect that is paid them by the 
children, as they pass through the country. 
Many of the women in New England are handsome. They gene- 
rally have fair, fresh, and healthful countenances, mingled with much 
female softness and delicacy. Those who have had the advantages 
of a good education, and they are very numerous, are genteel, easy, 
and agreeable in their manners, and are sprightly and sensible in con^ 
versation. They are easily taught to manage domestic concerns with 
neatness and economy. Ladies of the first fortune make it a part of 
their daily business to superintend the affairs of their family. To be 
employed at the needle, in cookery, and at the spinning wheel, with 
them is honourable : idleness, even in those of independent fortunes, 
is universally disreputable. The women in the country, manufacture 
the greatest part of the clothing of their families. Their linen and 
woollen cloths are strong and decent. Their butter and cheese is not 
inferior to any in the world. Dancing is the principal and favourite 
amusement in New England. Gaming is practised by none but those 
who cannot, or will not, find a reputable employment. The'gamester, 
the horse- jockey, and the knave, are equally despised, and their com- 
pany is avoided by all who would sustain fair characters. 
Theodious and inhuman practice of duelling, gouging, cockfighting, 
and horse-racing, are scarcely known. The athletic and healthy 
diversions of cricket, football, quoits, wrestling, jumping, foot-races, 
&c. are universally practised in the country, and some of them in the 
most populous places, and by people of almost all ranks. Squirrel- 
hunting is a noted diversion in country places, where this game is 
plentiful. Some divert themselves with fox-hunting, and others with 
the more profitable sports of fishing and duck-hunting ; and in the 
frontier settlements, where deerandgame abound, the inhabitants make 
a lucrative sport of hunting them. In winter, when the ground is 
covered with snow% which is commonly two or three months, sleighing 
is the general diversion. A great part of the families throughout the 
country are furnished with horses and sleighs. 
Celtiberians. 
The inhabitants of Celtiberia were very brave and w^arlike ; their 
cavalry in particular was excellent. They wore a black rough cloak, 
the shag of which was like goats’ hair. Some of them had light 
bucklers, like the Gauls ; others hollow and round ones, like those of 
other nations. They all wore boots made of hair, and iron helmets 
adorned with crests of a purple colour. They used sw'ords which 
cut on both sides, and poniards of a foot long. Their arms were of 
an admirable temper, and are said to have been prepared in the fol- 
lowing manner; they buried plates of iron under ground, where they 
let them remain till the rust had eaten the weakest part of the metal, 
and the rest was consequently hard and firm. Of this excellent iron 
they made their swords, which were so strong and well-tempered, that 
there was neither buckler nor helmet that could resist their edge. The 
