Polygamy is practised amongst the Landamas and Nalous, who may be said to inhabit the same country; the husbands have not only many lawful wives, but as many concubines as they can afford to keep. I have been told that the rich have sometimes so many as two hundred which I should think is a great exaggeration. This custom among these idolatrous nations proceeds no doubt from this, that the mothers do not suffer their husbands to approach them till their children are able to walk. It is very remarkable, that good order and perfect harmony prevail among all these women who are called to share the same conjugal couch. They are not all faithful to their husbands; but when a man suspects that one of his wives is false he compels her by the fear of the Simo to confess who has been the partner of her guilt. The woman seldom holds out long against his questions and threats; the fear of being subjected to the ordeal of the magistrate of the woods forces her to confess her fault and to discover her paramour. From that moment the latter becomes the slave of the husband, who sells him without pity to the negro merchants, or to any other negroes of the country. A young man has no need of the consent of the female whom he loves to obtain her hand; he takes care to gain over to his interest an old woman and an old man, whom he employs to convey a present to the parents of the girl, in order to incline them to give a favorable reception to his proposals. Should this offer be accepted, he continues to pay his court to the relations of his intended by these means, until, having obtained their consent, he sends a final present of rum, tobacco, stuffs, and colat-nuts,[42] which are very common on the banks of the Rio Nuñez, and which must always be of different colours. The father of the girl takes two of the colat-nuts, one white, the other red; he cuts them in two and throws the half of each into the air, to draw thence a favourable omen. After having examined the manner in which they have fallen, and being satisfied upon this point, he calls his daughter, who is not yet informed of the steps, taken to obtain her, and indeed very often does not know the lover who has applied for her. He makes her eat a little of each of the colat-nuts from which the omen has been drawn, and informs her, before the persons present, that she is to become the wife of him who has sent the presents; and the same day, without consulting her inclination the unfortunate creature is led to the home of a husband whom she will, perhaps, never love.