domestic duties. They attended to the cares ofthe family and the house; and the mother founda long and a serious occupation in the rearing ofher children, who were not allowed to approachthe father in public till a certain age (3). To herdaughters she endeavoured to give the accomplish'ments which might win to them the chiefs whowere most celebrated and powerful. To her sonsshe recited the exploits of their ancestors , andformed them to valor.

Nor are these the only sources of the respectwhich was paid to them. It has been often re-marked, that, in every period ok society, the womenare more disposed to rapture and devotion than themen, and that their curiosity to pry into futurityis more extravagant. The superstitious weaknes-ses, however, of the sex, which, in refined times,are a subject os ridicule, lead to reverence andattention in a rude age. The Germanic armiesseldom took the field without sorceresses; and thesehad an important sit are in directing their opera-tions (4). In private and civil affairs, their autho-rity was not less decisive. On the foundation ofthe wonder and astonishment excited by the know-ledge arrogated by the women, by the skill theydisplayed in divination , and , above all , by theceremony and the cruelty of the rites they prac-tised , a solid and permanent influence was estab-lished (5). It was thought, that they had some-thing divine in their nature; and the names of manyof them, who were worshipped as divinities, havecome down in history (6).