the
former dispersed in huts to the right hand, the latter to the left, each
sex keeping to its own side of the stones. After depositing their tools
the men came out and gathered silently around the strangers'
quarters--only very young children ran to and fro. After a time the women
reappeared with steaming calabashes, which they bore half across the road,
and set, each of them, on the stone before her dwelling. Then they
returned. Forthwith the males strolled back, carried the supper to their
respective huts, and in due time replaced the empty calabash upon the
stone, whence the women removed it.

It will be understood that these strange ceremonies interested Roezl.
Evidently the husbands lived on one side of the street, the wives and
young children on the other. The moon was full and he watched for hours.
After supper the males returned to squat and smoke around his hut,
scarcely speaking; but one after another they withdrew presently, each to
his own abode. So long as the moonlight enabled Roezl to observe, not one
crossed the way. And afterwards he discovered that this is an eternal
rule--a husband never enters his wife's dwelling. The separation of the
sexes is complete.

Long before satisfying himself on this point Roezl saw enough to convince
him that the usages of this secluded people must be well worth study. He
remained among them as long as he could, and even made memoranda--the
first and only time, I believe, that he kept records other than botanical
or scientific. It may be hoped that they survive and will come to light,
since his papers are now stored in the museum at Prague. I am dependent on
the memory of those whom he amused with curt stories of adventure over
pipe and glass on his visits to England. They are many, and they preserve
the liveliest remembrance of one to whom Johnson's remarks on the greatest
of modern orators are peculiarly applicable. 'If a man were to go by
chance at the same time with Burke under a shed to escape a shower, he
would say, "This is an extraordinary man."' Unfortunately, it is the most
striking observations alone which they recall, with but a vague impression
of others.

Every hearer asked, of course, how the race could avoid extinction under
such circumstances? But it appears that the separation is only public--an
exaggerated prudery, one might describe it, though we may be sure that the
sentiment lies infinitely deeper. The sexes work apart, as has been said;
after t