When An Indian Is Provoked By A Woman, He Either Spears Her
Or Knocks Her Down On The Spot.
On this occasion he always strikes
on the head, using indiscriminately a hatchet, a club or any other weapon
which may chance to be in his hand.
The heads of the women are always
consequently seen in the state which I found that of Gooreedeeana.
Colbee, who was certainly, in other respects a good tempered merry fellow,
made no scruple of treating Daringa, who was a gentle creature, thus.
Baneelon did the same to Barangaroo, but she was a scold and a vixen,
and nobody pitied her. It must nevertheless be confessed that the women
often artfully study to irritate and inflame the passions of the men,
although sensible that the consequence will alight on themselves.
Many a matrimonial scene of this sort have I witnessed. Lady Mary Wortley
Montague, in her sprightly letters from Turkey, longs for some of the
advocates for passive obedience and unconditional submission then existing
in England to be present at the sights exhibited in a despotic government.
A thousand times, in like manner, have I wished that those European
philosophers whose closet speculations exalt a state of nature above
a state of civilization, could survey the phantom which their heated
imaginations have raised. Possibly they might then learn that a state
of nature is, of all others, least adapted to promote the happiness of
a being capable of sublime research and unending ratiocination. That a
savage roaming for prey amidst his native deserts is a creature deformed
by all those passions which afflict and degrade our nature, unsoftened by
the influence of religion, philosophy and legal restriction:
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