[16] These are two very small islands at the opening of the Zuider zee.
[17] From The Student and Intellectual Observer, London, November number, 1868, p. 310, in article by Thomas Wright, F.S.A. Chapter vii—Womankind in all Ages of Western Europe, etc.
[18] Cottages of the Alps (London, 1860), pages 77, 91, 132.
[19] New Voyage to North America, giving a full Account of the Customs, Commerce, Religion and Strange Opinions of the Savages of that Country, etc., etc. Written by Baron Lahontan, Lord Lieutenant of the French Colony at Placentia, in Newfoundland, now in England. London, 1703.
In describing the amatory customs of the Indians of this country, the author says (Vol. II, p. 37):
"You must know further, that Two Hours after Sunset the Old Supperannuated Persons, or Slaves (who never lie in their Masters' Huts) take care to cover up the Fire before they go. 'Tis then that the Young Savage comes well wrapt up to his Mistress's Hut, and lights a sort of a Match at the Fire; after which he opens the Door of his Mistress's Apartment and makes up to her bed: If she blows out the light, he lies down by her; but if she pulls her Covering over her Face, he retires; that being a Sign that she will not receive him."
[20] Verily, Peters's sarcasm savors as much of truth as humor when, speaking of bundling, he says: "The Indians who had this method of courtship among them in 1634, are the most chaste set of people in the world. Concubinage and fornication are vices none of them are addicted to, except such as forsake the laws of Hobbamockon and turn Christians. The savages have taken many female prisoners, carried them back three hundred miles into their country, and kept them several years, and yet not a single instance of their violating the laws of chastity has ever been known. This cannot be said of the French, or of the English, whenever Indian or other women have fallen into their hands."
[21] "Great jealousy did they likewise stir up by their intermeddling and successes among the divine sex; for being a race of brisk, likely, pleasant tongued varlets, they soon seduced the light affections of the simple lasses from their ponderous Dutch gallants. Among other hideous customs, they attempted to introduce among them that of bundling, which the Dutch lasses of the Nederlandts, with that eager passion for novelty and foreign fashions natural to their sex, seemed very well inclined to follow, but that their mothers, being more experienced in the world, and better acquainted with men and things, strenuously discountenanced all such outlandish innovations."
[22] By Washington Irving, p. 211. 4th Am. edition.
[23] Dr. Andrew Burnaby. Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America, in the years 1759 and '60. London, 1775.