of his warriors, returned victorious, claimed his bride, and at the death of her father, reigned King of Sweden."

We have one similar instance, in the scriptures. When the young Jewish hero, David, fell in love with the daughter of Saul, that crafty king sent him on a dangerous expedition against the Philistines.

"And Saul said, thus shall ye say unto David, the king desireth not any dowry, but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies."

David killed two hundred, and was married to his beloved Michal.

A stranger custom is said to have prevailed among a people in Scythia. Every young man who paid his addresses to a lady, was obliged to engage ner in single combat; if he vanquished, he led her off in triumph, and became her husband and master; but if the lady, as often happened, proved victorious, she led him off in the same manner, and made him her husband and her slave.

Our customs differ in two respects. The question of supremacy is not decided till after marriage, and it generally requires many combats, instead of only one!

The existing manners and customs of various nations will afford us abundant materials for all the space we can devote to the remainder of this portion of our subject; and we can in no way begin better than by noticing the peculiar customs of the aborigines of this continent.

We are told that among the Indians of the Isthmus of Darien, the privilege of courtship belongs equally to both sexes. It is always leap-year. A man or a woman, who feels the passion of love, declares it freely without scruple and without embarrassment. Whether the unions thus formed are peculiarly happy, our authority for the above statement has not informed us.

Among some tribes of North America, the method of asking in courtship, as well as that of refusing, has the merit and beauty of simplicity to commend it, if no other. When the Indian lover goes to visit his mistress, he stands humbly without her wigwam, and without venturing to speak, or concealing his perturbations by silence, he by signs asks permission to enter. If this permission be grant

ed, he goes in, and takes a seat by the side of his beloved; still maintaining a timid, respectful silence. If the lady suffer him to remain thus, without interruption, her doing so is a sign that she returns his affection-silence gives consent, and they become man and wife without farther ceremony. But if the lady offer her suitor any refreshment, it is a refusal. She sits by him, while he makes his repast, and he retires in silence. All this is charmingly natural. The lady, absorbed in her love, does not think of the common offices of hospitality!

A custom of courtship in another tribe is of equal simplicity, and still greater significance. The lover visits his mistress by night. He does not stand without, sighing and serenading, but quietly steals into the wigwam, lights a match or taper, at the fire, and approaches the bed, where the maiden is lying, holding his light before him that she may see him distinctly. When he approaches the bed, there is no need of vows or protestations, and but little room for coquetry. If the lady approves of her suitor, she says yes, in the most expressive way in the world, by blowing out the light, and the subsequent proceedings of the happy couple come more properly under another title. If the lady does not blow out the light, but suffers it to remain burning, it is a denial, and the gentleman is obliged to retire.

There is something exceedingly melancholy in the accounts which are given of the customs of courtship in Greenland. Generally, women enter upon the blessed estate with more willingness and less solicitude than men. The women of Greenland are an exception to this rule. A Greenlander, having fixed his affections upon some female, acquaints his parents with the state of his heart. They apply to the parents of the girl, and if the parties thus far are agreed, the next proceeding is to appoint two female negociators, whose duty it is to broach the subject to the young lady. This is a matter of great tact and delicacy. The lady ambassadors do not shock the maiden to whom they are sent, by any sudden or abrupt avowal of the awful subject of their mission. Instead of doing this, they launch out in praises of the gentleman who seeks her hand. They speak of the splendor of his house, the sumptuousness

of his furniture, of his courage and skill in catching seals and other accomplishments.

The lady, pretending to be affronted, even at these remote hints, runs away, tearing the ringlets of her hair as she retires, while the ambassadresses, having got the consent of her parents, pursue her, drag her from her concealment, take her by force to the house of her destined husband, and there leave her. Compelled to remain there, she sits for days with dishevelled hair, silent and dejected, refusing every kind of sustenance, till at last, if kind entreaties do not prevail, she is compelled by force, and even by blows, to submit to the detested union. In some cases, Greenland women faint at a proposal of marriage-in others, they fly to the mountains, and only return when compelled to do so by cold and hunger. If one cuts off her hair, it is a sign that she is determined to resist to the death.

All this appears so unnatural to us, that we seek for the reason of such an apparent violation of the first principles of human nature. The Greenland wife is the slave of her husband, doomed to a life of toil, drudgery and privation, and if he die, she and her children have no resource against starvation. The married state is a miserable conditionwhile widowhood is a still more appalling fate.

We have seen how little there is deserving the name of courtship in savage life, either of the present or the past. It is only amid the refinements of enlightened nations, that the delights of making love are of common enjoyment. In Asia, in Africa, and in much of Europe, marriage is preceded by none of those delicate attentions, and affectionate interchange of sentiments, which form the proper prelude to the matrimonial engagement. Even in some of the politest nations, as among the most barbarous, the marriages are affairs of convenience, in which fortune, position, every thing is consulted, but the sentiments of those who are taught to submit in a matter of such vital_moment, to parental dictation. Thus in France, as in Java, young persons meet for the first time in their lives, to be indissolubly united by the marriage tie.

In regard to all these countries, we shall have much to say, under our next head of Marriage, but in treating of Courtship, we must confine ourselves to countries where

the rights of the female sex, of both sexes, indeed, are better considered.

Spain was long the land of gallantry and chivalry. After the ancient customs of confining women with bolts, bars, and duennas had given way, a romantic gallantry was carried to the highest pitch, and love became the brightest picture of Spanish life.

Though women had long since been permitted to have a choice in the affairs of the heart, there was still preserved a decorum of manners, which prevented a Spanish lady from being alone with her lover. The consequence is a resort to every ingenious device, by which a glowing passion may find expression.

The Spanish lover writes out his adoration in sonnets, and sets his affection to music. At night he sings his love-lays under the lattice of his lady. Or if not himself gifted with musical abilities, he hires artists who are able to do justice to the ardor of his passion. The colder the air without, the more is the serenade supposed to warm the heart of the lady within, and as pity is supposed to lead directly to love, the Spanish suitor stays night after night, heaving deep sighs, and casting piteous looks toward the window, satisfied, yea, supremely blessed, if he receives the slightest signal of acknowledgment in return.

In Spain, love is full of sentiment-a delicious madness, which, for the time, absorbs all other feelings. A Spanish lover scarcely thinks, speaks, or dreams of any but his mistress. Not only does his devotion to her appear like idolatry, but he is ready to encounter any peril, or to engage in any combat to manifest the strength of his attachment. He is ready to punish her enemies, fight his rivals, or do battle with the world at large, in his sweet mistress' cause; but his choicest opportunity for signalising his courage and conduct, under the very eyes of his mistress, is in the Bull Fight, the national festival of Spain, and all Spanish countries. There, surrounded by the whole public, and sure that his mistress is watching him, as Hudibras has it:

"He obtains the noblest spouse,

Who widows greatest herds of cows."

This notion of exciting love by bringing into play the

emotion of pity, or sympathy, has been made use of ir Spain, in a still more remarkable manner.

It was once the custom in Madrid, and other chief cities of Spain, for large companies of people, who called themselves disciplants or whippers, to form a procession through the public streets, every Good Friday, attended by the religious orders, courts of law, and sometime by the Royal Court. The whippers were arrayed in high sugar loaf hats, white gloves and shoes, and waistcoats with ribbons of the colors preferred by the mistresses of their affections, and were armed with whips of small cords, to the end of which were fastened bits of wax, in which were inserted pieces of glass. The whole city, and especially the ladies, were spectators of this procession, and as it passed along, he who whipped himself hardest felt sure of winning the favor of his Dulcinea. When they went past a beautiful woman, some one was sure to whip himself in such a manner as to sprinkle her with his blood, an honor for which she returned suitable acknowledgments; and when any lover of this train passed the window where his mistress was sitting, he began to lay on the whip with redoubled fury; while the lady felt not a little complimented by such proofs of devotion.

The lively Lady Montague gives an account of a somewhat similar scene, which she witnessed in Constantinople, —a procession, when the Sultan was going out to take command of the army.

was

"The rear of the procession," says Lady Mary, composed of volunteers, who came to beg of the Sultan the honor of dying in his service; they were all naked to the middle, some had their arms pierced through with arrows left sticking in them, others had them sticking in their heads, with the blood trickling down their faces; some slashed their arms with sharp knives, making the blood spring out upon the bystanders, and this is looked on as an expression of their zeal for glory. And I am told that some make use of it to advance their love; and when they come near the window where their mistress stands, all the women being veiled to see this spectacle, they stick another arrow for her sake, who gives some sign of approbation and encouragement to this kind of gallantry."