as serve to deck the new married woman; but oxen and horse accoutred,
and a shield, with a javelin and sword. By virtue of these gifts, she
is espoused. She too on her part brings her husband some arms. This they
esteem the highest tie, these the holy mysteries, and matrimonial Gods.
That the woman may not suppose herself free from the considerations of
fortitude and fighting, or exempt from the casualties of war, the very
first solemnities of her wedding serve to warn her, that she comes to
her husband as a partner in his hazards and fatigues, that she is to
suffer alike with him, to adventure alike, during peace or during war.
This the oxen joined in the same yoke plainly indicate, this the horse
ready equipped, this the present of arms. 'Tis thus she must be content
to live, thus to resign life. The arms which she then receives she must
preserve inviolate, and to her sons restore the same, as presents worthy
of them, such as their wives may again receive, and still resign to her
grandchildren.

They therefore live in a state of chastity well secured; corrupted by no
seducing shows and public diversions, by no irritations from banqueting.
Of learning and of any secret intercourse by letters, they are all
equally ignorant, men and women. Amongst a people so numerous, adultery
is exceeding rare; a crime instantly punished, and the punishment left
to be inflicted by the husband. He, having cut off her hair, expells her
from his house naked, in presence of her kindred, and pursues her with
stripes throughout the village. For, to a woman who has prostituted her
person, no pardon is ever granted. However beautiful she may be, however
young, however abounding in wealth, a husband she can never find. In
truth, nobody turns vices into mirth there, nor is the practice of
corrupting and of yielding to corruption, called the custom of the Age.
Better still do those communities, in which none but virgins marry, and
where to a single marriage all their views and inclinations are at once