They are
all nourished with the milk of their own mothers, and never surrendered to
handmaids and nurses. The lord you cannot discern from the slave, by any
superior delicacy in rearing. Amongst the same cattle they promiscuously
live, upon the same ground they without distinction lie, till at a proper
age the free-born are parted from the rest, and their bravery recommend
them to notice. Slow and late do the young men come to the use of women,
and thus very long preserve the vigour of youth. Neither are the virgins
hastened to wed. They must both have the same sprightly youth, the like
stature, and marry when equal and able-bodied. Thus the robustness of the
parents is inherited by the children. Children are holden in the same
estimation with their mother's brother, as with their father. Some hold
this tie of blood to be most inviolable and binding, and in receiving of
hostages, such pledges are most considered and claimed, as they who at
once possess affections the most unalienable, and the most diffuse
interest in their family. To every man, however, his own children are
heirs and successors: wills they make none: for want of children his next
akin inherits; his own brothers, those of his father, or those of his
mother.
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