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THROUGH FINLAND. 295
ceremony, the new married man is obliged to declare, whether
or no he found his bride a virgin. If he anfwers in the affirma-
_tive, the orator, either in verfe or profe, celebrates the happinefs
of the young couple on the preceding night, and drinks to their
health out of a clean, well fcoured, and bright cup. If in the
negative, there is on the table a dirty and mean veffel, out of
which he is obliged to drink. In the bottom of this utenfil is a
hole out of which the liquor runs, and is fpilt on the ground at
one end, whilft it is emptied by the orator at the other. He
after this makes fome remarks, and gives fome counfels of no very
pleafing nature, to the bride. When the orator has finifhed his
harangue, in either of thefe cafes, he takes up a pair of the bride-
groom’s breeches, which are at hand for the purpofe, and thumps
the bride with them luftily (but not on her head or the, upper
part of her body), faying, at the fame time, ‘** Be fruitful, wo-
«« man, and don’t fail of producing heirs to your hufband !”
It is a general obfervation, and which admits of no exception,
that in proportion as tribes or focieties of men are rude and Gasgle
in their manners, they are indelicate on the fubject of that paffion
which unites the fexes. That pudor girca res venereas, which Gro-
tius held to be a univerfal fentiment, and characteriftic of the hu-
man fpecies, in Otaheite has no exiftence. There was a cuftom
which prevailed not a century ago in fome parts of Scotland, and
which, according to tradition, was once general, almoft as grofs
as that of the Finlanders, On the day after the wedding, when
the marriage feaft was continued, as in Finland, it was cuftomary
for
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