not to be a virgin, she is divorced and prohibited from marrying again; but yet, on certain festivals, the husband allows his spouse the liberty of a deputy.

It may be proper to observe here that many of

the customs of the numerous Indian tribes are only to be found in their native state, not where they are placed under Christian servitude or control.

PANAMA, CUMANA, CARACCAS, &c.-The young women wear the apron when of the age of puberty, and the courtship does not extend beyond asking the question. The fathers on each side dance at the festive ceremony; the bridegroom then runs to the field, and with his attendants cuts down the trees which cover the spot of ground where the new-married couple are to lodge, and, while the men are clearing the ground, the bride and her train sow grain there.-The savages of New Grenada bury the child with the mother if she dies in child-bed, to prevent its being an orphan.

In PARIA the marriage ceremony consists in cutting off the hair from the forehead of the bride and bridegroom.-The priest gives his blessing, and a gluttonous festival concludes the business.

Mr. Humboldt in his scientific voyage observes: "The banks of the Manzanaries are very pleasant, and shadowed by mimosas, erythrinas, cei

bas, and other trees of gigantic growth. A river, the temperature of which, in the season of the floods, descends as low as twenty-two degrees, when the air is at thirty and thirty-three degrees, is an inestimable benefit, in a country where the heats are excessive during the whole year, and where it is so agreeable to bathe several times in the day. The children pass, as it were, a part of their lives in the water: the whole of the inhabitants, even the women of the most opulent families, know how to swim; and in a country where man is so near the state of nature, one of the first questions asked at first meeting in the morning is, whether the water is cooler than the preceding evening. The mode of bathing is various enough. We every evening visited a very respectable society, in the suburb of the Guayquerias. In a fine moon-light night, chairs were placed in the water; the men and women were lightly clothed, as in some baths of the north of Europe; and the family and strangers, assembled in the river, passed' some hours in smoking segars, and in talking, according to the custom of the country, of the extreme dryness of the season, of the abundant rains in the neighbouring districts, and particularly of the luxuries of which the ladies of Cumana accuse those of the Caraccas and Havannah, The company were under no apprehensions from the bavas, or small crocodiles, which are now ex

tremely scarce, and which approach men without attacking them."

The country being Roman Catholic, the marriage rites of the Spaniards are conformable to the rubrics of that church.

The TLASCALANS used to shave the heads of the new-married couple, to denote that all useful sports should in the married state be abandoned. In one province of the Mexican empire it was customary. to carry the bridegroou to be married, that it might seem as if against his consent.

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In the province of PANUCO, a husband purchased his wife, and her father did not speak to his son-in-law for the first year of his marriage. The husband and wife did not cohabit for two years ter the birth of their first child. The Macatecas, another province of Mexico, fasted, prayed, and sacrificed to their gods for twenty days after marriage, and likewise, drew from themselves blood; with which they sprinkled their idols. The mu-: tual consent of the parties was all that was requi-: site for a separation; but they were on pain of death prohibed from a re-union; a stature, whose penalties were so severe, rendered divorces unfrequept. Female chastity was held in high estimation, and a breach of conjugal, fidelity was regarded as highly criminal.

In NEW GRENADA, where polygamy is allowed, the ties of consanguinity are respected. The Ca

cique has usually a greater number of wives thần any other of the people; and his successors are chosen from among the children of her to whom he was most attached.

The CARIRANIANS allowed the practice of polygamy to its fullest extent, and a cacique frequently distributed his wives into different parts of the country. Feasting and dancing was introduced at the marriage ceremony, and the hair of the parties was cut off. The bride was obliged to pass the first night with the priest, as a form essentially necessary to constitute the legality of the marriage, which part being omitted, she was only considered as a concubine. Among the natives of America, it does not appear customary for a father to bestow any portion with his daughter. The practice of receiving a dower with a wife, which is not always productive of felicity in wedlock, prevails only in a degree as society has made advances in civilization, the arts, and a taste for luxury.

CARIBBEES. They are jealous of their wives, and. will sacrifice them to their fury without any risk of being called to account for it. Notwithstanding the state of absolute slavery in which the married women are kept, they are both dutiful and faithful. Their young girls about twelve years of age wear the apron as a characteristic of modesty and chastity. In the Lucayan islands,

when the girls are marriageable, the relations meet together and make a feast, and a cotton net is given her to wear round her waist, before which she was absolutely naked. The Caribbee young women are kept from the company of young men, but they seldom arrive at that age without being attacked by some savage, who at the proper age takes her for his wife. It sometimes happens that a Caribbee demands the offspring of a woman with child, provided it be a girl, which if granted, the abdomen of the women is marked to that effect. A father, here, as in other places, keeps fast for 30 or 40 days, and withdraws from society on the birth of a son, and some travellers relate that he keeps his bed, and acts the part of a lying-in woman. When a child is born it is bathed, in water, and the mother begins to flatten its forehead, and squash its face. At two years old they perform the ceremony of cutting off its hair.

The custom of espousing a pluralty of wives prevails among the natives of DARIEN; and the husbands have the privilege of selling their partners whenever they cease to be agreeable. Prostitution before marriage is said to be frequent, but as pregnancy is looked upon as ignominous then, they take every method of prevention. Attachment to each other from mutual affection is not necessary for forming engagements between the sexes; their gallantry extends no farther than to