Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/298

284 dance of the warriors, the ſage counſel of the chiefs, the tales of the old, the triumphal entry of the warriors returning with ſucceſs from battle, and the reſpect paid to thoſe who diſtinguiſh themſelves in war and in ſubduing their enemies; in ſhort every thing they ſee or hear tends to inſpire them with an ardent deſire for military fame. If a young man were to diſcover a fondneſs for women before he had been to war, he would become the contempt of the men and the ſcorn and ridicule of the women. Or were he to indulge himſelf with a captive taken in war, and much more were he to offer violence in order to gratify his luſt, he would incur indelible diſgrace. The ſeeming frigidity of the men, therefore, is the effect of manners, and not a defect of nature. Beſides a celebrated warrior is oftener courted by the females, than he has occaſion to court: and this is a point of honor which the men aim at. Inſtance ſimilar to that of Ruth and Boaz are not uncommon among them. For though the women are modeſt and difficult, and ſo baſhful that they ſeldom lift up their eyes, and ſcarce ever look a man full in the face, yet, being brought up in great ſubjection, cuſtom and manners reconcile them to modes of acting, which, judged of by Europeans, would be deemed inconſiſtent with the rules of female decorum and propriety. I once ſaw a young widow, whoſe huſband, a warrior,