Now, It Often Happens,
That The Man Has Not So Much Of Their Money Ready, As He Is To Pay
For his Wife; but if they know him to be a good Hunter, and that he can raise
the Sum
Agreed for, in some few Moons, or any little time, they agree,
she shall go along with him, as betroth'd, but he is not to have
any Knowledge of her, till the utmost Payment is discharg'd;
all which is punctually observ'd. Thus, they lie together under one Covering
for several Months, and the Woman remains the same as she was
when she first came to him. I doubt, our Europeans would be apt
to break this Custom, {Indian Men not vigorous.} but the Indian Men
are not so vigorous and impatient in their Love as we are.
Yet the Women are quite contrary, and those Indian Girls
that have convers'd with the English and other Europeans,
never care for the Conversation of their own Countrymen afterwards.
They never marry so near as a first Cousin; and although there is nothing
more coveted amongst them, than to marry a Woman of their own Nation,
yet when the Nation consists of a very few People (as now adays
it often happens) so that they are all of them related to one another,
then they look out for Husbands and Wives amongst Strangers.
For if an Indian lies with his Sister, or any very near Relation,
his Body is burnt, and his Ashes thrown into the River, as unworthy
to remain on Earth; yet an Indian is allow'd to marry two Sisters,
or his Brothers Wife.
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