Note 76 — Chapter II · The Sioux or Dakotahs.

Traces of this ancient practice may be found in the four quarters of the globe. Mr.Bartlett, in his instructive volume, quotes the Rev. Samuel Pike (“General History of Connecticut,” London, 1781), who quaintly remarks: “Notwithstanding the great modesty of the females is such that it would be accounted the greatest rudeness for a gentleman to speak before a lady of a garter or a leg, yet it is thought but a piece of civility to ask her to bundle.” The learned and pious historian endeavored to prove that bundling was not only a Christian, but a very polite and prudent practice. So the Rev. Andrew Barnaby, who traveled in New England in 1759-60, thinks that though bundling may “at first appear the effect of grossness of character, it will, upon deeper research, be found to proceed from simplicity and innocence.”