[322] Madame Calderon de la Barca.
[323] Clavijero.
[324] Waddy Thompson, Mexico in 1846, p. 115.
[325] Madame Calderon de la Barca, p. 259.
[326] Norman, Yucatan.
[327] Stevens, Travels in Central America.
[328] Among the Napuals, a remnant of the ancient Aztec inhabitants, marriage seems to have been under the direction of the chiefs, and consisted in first submitting the parties to lustrations, such as washing them in a river, and afterward tying them together in the bride’s house, whither the relations brought presents to the new couple.
It was customary for only the kindred to lament the death of ordinary persons, but the decease of a cazique or war-chief was signalized by a general mourning for four days. Rape was punished with death, adultery by making the offender the slave of the injured husband, “unless pardoned by the high-priest on account of past services in war.” There were certain degrees of relationship within which it was unlawful to marry, and sexual intercourse in such limits was punished with death. Upon matters of this kind there existed the greatest rigor, for, says Herrera, “he who courted or made signs to a married woman was banished.” Fornication was punished by whipping.—Squier’s Notes on Central America, p. 346.
[329] Squier, p. 50.
[330] Peru; Reiseskizzen in den Jahren 1838-1842. (Peru, Sketches of Travel.) By J. J. Von Tschudi. 2 vols. St. Gallen, 1846.