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uare of their respective cities, and their hands were joined by a cacique in face of the people. This simple ceremony, together with the pronouncement of the contract by the cacique, constituted a marriage. The gentile system was, in some sort, in force among the Peruvians, and no one was allowed to contract marriage with any but a member of his or her gens; but this rule was capable of broad extension, even to including those residing in the same province. The ceremony was followed by festivities lasting several days; and the fact of all weddings being simultaneous turned the whole land into a festal place. We are not told what was done when some one was so inconsiderate as to die during this period and thus interfere with the merriment of his particular kindred; probably the corpse was compelled to wait until its turn came and grief could legitimately take the place of joy. However this may be, it is certain that marriage was in all ways held in high respect by the Peruvians, and divorce was almost or quite unknown. For the rest, the lot of the Peruvian woman was practically the same as that held by the woman of the Aztecs and does not call for amplification. There is, however, another primitive civilization of South America which calls for notice, as being in its way as interesting as that of the Peruvians, and moreover of greater importance to the present, since in some aspects it still survives. This was the civilization of the Araucanians, to adopt the general, though not absolutely correct nomenclature. While the more remarkable civilization of the early Peruvians has centred general attention upon itself among the primitive cultures of South America, that of the Araucanians was hardly less wonderful in certain aspects, though as an absolute culture it was far below the standard of its more northern compeer. The Araucanians were simply Indians, but Indians of a very remarkable class. Among the tribes of North America their nearest peers would probably be found among the Navajos; but the Araucanians were in many respects far superior to their brothers of the northern plains. They were, above all, warriors, and for long they successfully resisted the Spanish invasion. They were a free, restless, brave, and highly independent people, and far better fitted for survival than their more highly cultured neighbors, and this they have proved by resistance to the ill effects of eastern civilization and a persistence unto
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