This Was My Last Evening On My Stool In The Chimney Corner, And I
Had A Long Talk With Some Neighbours Who Came In To Bid Me
Prosperity, And Lay About On The Floor With Their Heads On Low
Stools And Their Feet Stretched Out To The Embers Of The Turf.
The
old woman was at the other side of the fire, and the girl I have
spoken of was standing at her spinning-wheel, talking and joking
with every one.
She says when I go away now I am to marry a rich
wife with plenty of money, and if she dies on me I am to come back
here and marry herself for my second wife.
I have never heard talk so simple and so attractive as the talk of
these people. This evening they began disputing about their wives,
and it appeared that the greatest merit they see in a woman is that
she should be fruitful and bring them many children. As no money can
be earned by children on the island this one attitude shows the
immense difference between these people and the people of Paris.
The direct sexual instincts are not weak on the island, but they are
so subordinated to the instincts of the family that they rarely lead
to irregularity. The life here is still at an almost patriarchal
stage, and the people are nearly as far from the romantic moods of
love as they are from the impulsive life of the savage.
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