The parents of a young Mexican having selected a suitable wife, priests are consulted, and the match concludes or not, according to their predictions. If their answers are favorable, the girl is asked of her parents by certain women styled solicitors, who are chosen from the most respectable of the youth’s kindred. The first demand is always refused; the second receives a more favorable answer; and when consent is finally obtained, the bride, after proper exhortation from her parents, is conducted to the house of her father-in-law. If wealthy, she is carried in a litter. The bridegroom and his relations receive her at the gate, where four women are stationed bearing torches. As soon as the young couple meet, they offer incense to each other. They then sit on a curiously wrought mat, in the centre of the hall, near the fire, and the priest ties the bride’s gown to the bridegroom’s mantle. They offer sacrifices to the gods, and exchange presents. The guests are then entertained with feasting and dancing in the open air; but the newly married are shut up in the house for four days. At the end of that period they appear in their richest attire, and give dresses to the company, in proportion to their wealth. Gumilla, in his History of the River Orinoco, says there is one nation that marry old men to girls and old women to lads, that age may correct the petulance of youth. They say, to join together people equal in youth and imprudence, is to join one fool to another. The first marriage is however only a kind of apprenticeship; for after a while the young people are allowed to marry those of their own age. Among several tribes of North American Indians, the lover begins his suit by going at midnight to the tent, or lodge, of his mistress. He lights a splinter of wood, and holds it to her face to awaken her. If she leaves the torch burning, it is a signal that she rejects him; but if she blows it out, he understands that he is at liberty to communicate his intentions. In some places, when the lover approaches the hut of his mistress, he begs leave to enter it by signs. If permission is obtained, he goes in and sits down by her in silence. If she suffers him to remain, without any expression of disapprobation, it is an indication that she favors his suit; but if she offers him food or drink, he understands it as a refusal.