augmenting or diminishing according to the different degrees of civilization they may have attained. They have no influence over men wandering in forests; they have every influence over them when they begin to build huts, though they only return to them at night. A striking lesson for more than one unhappy. woman among civilized nations. Indeed there are such husbands as may, from their conduct towards their wives, be justly compared to savages, and who resemble them from the absence of all affection, and of every sentiment; the abject state of minds that retain their ferocity. If then this woman wish to render her house agreeable, and to dissipate her melancholy; if she only wear a serene aspect; if her mouth utter only soft things without reproach, it must go well with her. A hardy and criminal man expects to be met with murmurs; he prepares himself beforehand to re pel tears; to answer caprice by impatience, and ill nature by irony; but if he meet with no resistance, all the force which he had collected falls of itself. The man of whom we speak, in such circumstances, begins to go out later in the morning, and to return sooner in the evening :-idleness is the most common foundation of our character; we soon acquire a greater fondness for the more soft and less troublesome pleasures; happiness finishes by outweighing pleasure; and thus, thanks to the virtues of a tender, skilful and wise woman, a barbarian is softened, and an inconstant rendered faithful. Without considering farther the state of women among savages, it may be seen by what I have said of them, and by some notes subjoined to this work, that, among almost all of these barbarian hordes, they had uniformly but one revolving round of pains and afflictions; but yet they were not con fined there as in Asia. They like to boast a savage woman, too unhappy, too much persecuted, is able to fly into the woods, to apply the strength and the address which she has acquired to render herself less wretched, and escape from her tyrants--but a woman imprisoned in a seraglio, tormented by her infamous guardians, who revenge themselves of their own misfortune by that of their victims, appears to me still more unfortunate, even in the midst of the luxury which surrounds her. The other wants every thing, but has at least her liberty. I should doubtless merit just reproach were I to pass by the Amazons in silence. Their existence is, in the opinion of many people, purely fabulous; yet, as some writers are of a different opinion on this subject, I shall not pretend to pronounce between them; but, referring my readers to all that has been written concerning these brilliant heroines, shall content my self, with quoting an account with which I am furnished by Herodotus. ORIGIN OF THE SARMATIANS. "AFTER the Greeks had fought against the Amazons, and had obtained a victory on the banks of the Thermodon, it is related that they carried away with them, in three vessels, all that they had been able to take prisoners. On the open sea they attacked their conquerors, and cut them in pieces; but, as they knew nothing respecting the working of a ship, and understood not the use either of the sails or of the helm, after they had killed the men, they gave themselves up to the conduct of the waves and the wind, and at length landed at Gemnes *, in the Mæotis Palus. The Amazons having * Gemnes was in the country of the free Scythians. here descended from their vessels, marched into the interior of the inhabited countries, and possessing themselves of the first herd of horses which they met on their rout, mounted them, and pillaged the territories of the Scythians. People could not ima-gine what these, their new enemies, were, being unacquainted both with their language and their dress. They at first took them for men of the same age; and under this idea gave them battle; but after the action they discovered, by the dead which remained in their hands, that they were women. In a council held upon this occasion, they resolved not to kill any more of them, but to send the youngest among them in as great a number as they ima gined there might be of the Amazons, with orders to form their camp near them, to do the same things as they should see the Amazons do; not fight even if they should attack them, but to take to flight, and to approach them |