[Footnote 559: _Queesting_ (a seeking, similar to English "quest") seems to have existed until last century on the islands of Vlie, Wieringen, and perhaps elsewhere in Holland. "At night the lover has access to his mistress after she is in bed; and, upon an application to be admitted upon the bed, which is of course granted, he raises the quilt, or rug, and in this state _queests_, or enjoys a harmless chit-chat with her, and then retires. This custom meets with perfect sanction of the most circumspect parents, and the freedom is seldom abused. The author traces its origin to the parsimony of the people, whose economy considers fire and candles as superfluous luxuries in the long winter evenings."--STILES, _op. cit._, 35, 36, citing CARR, _The Stranger in Ireland_ (1807).] [Footnote 560: ADAMS, _Some Phases of Sexual Immorality_, 33. Mr. Adams, however, while pointing out the "singular and to me unaccountable, fact" that traces of bundling, found so widely in the New England colonies, have not yet been discovered in England, thinks that it "could hardly have found its way as a custom" from Holland or the other countries named; and he mentions, by way of supporting his conclusion, its great prevalence in Cape Cod where, according to Palfrey, until about 1825, "there was a purer strain of English blood to be found ... than could be found in any county of England." But wherever the Dutch settled the custom of bundling was tenacious, lasting in Pennsylvania at least until 1845: EARLE, _Customs and Fashions_, 63: and in New York at least until 1804: STILES, _op. cit._, 111.] [Footnote 561: STILES, _op. cit._, 14-35, who cites various authorities for Wales, especially PRATT, _Gleaning through Wales, Holland, and Westphalia_ (3d ed., London, 1797), I, 105-7; and BINGLEY, _North Wales_ (London, 1804), II, 282. _Cf._ also ADAMS, _op. cit._, 32; and BRAND, _Popular Antiquities_, II, 98.] [Footnote 562: Bundling probably has its origin in the "proof-nights" which formerly were widely prevalent among the Teutonic peoples of Europe: see FISCHER, _Ueber die Probenächte_, 12 ff., 24 ff., 32-36.]