Note AI — {95} CHAP. V.
Reading edition
Most of the Southern Indians, as well as the Athapuscow and Neheaway tribes, are entirely without scruple in this respect. It is notoriously known, that many of them cohabit occasionally with their own mothers, and frequently espouse their sisters and daughters. I have known several of them who, after having lived in that state for some time with their daughters, have given them to their sons, and all parties been perfectly reconciled to it.
In fact, notwithstanding the severity of the climate, the licentiousness of the inhabitants cannot be exceeded by any of the Eastern nations, whose luxurious manner of life, and genial clime, seem more adapted to excite extraordinary passions, than the severe cold of the frigid Zone.
It is true, that few of those who live under the immediate protection of the English ever take either their sisters or daughters for wives, which is probably owing to the fear of incurring their displeasure; but it is well known that acts of incest too often take place among them, though perhaps not so frequently as among the foreign Indians.