The missionaries appealed to the king, respecting this impious assumption, and that prince conceiving that it interfered with the respect due to himself, agreed to deliver into their hands the unfortunate smith, to be converted into a mortal in any manner they might judge efficacious.

After a short and unsuccessful argument, they had recourse to the same potent instrument of conversion, as they had applied to the back of the queen.

The son of Vulcan, deserted in this extremity by all his votaries, still made a firm stand for his celestial dignity, till the blood began to stream from his back and shoulders, when he finally yielded, and renounced all pretensions to a divine origin.
A more intimate acquaintance discovered other irregularities amongst the natives, against which a painful struggle was to be maintained.
According to the custom of the country, and it were well if the same custom could be introduced into some particular parts of Europe, the two parties, previously to marriage, lived together for some time, in order to make a trial of each other's tempers and inclinations, before entering into the final arrangement.

To this system of probation, the natives were most obstinately attached, and the missionaries in vain denounced it, calling upon them at once either to marry or to separate.

The young ladies were always the most anxious to have the full benefit of this experimental process; and the mothers, on being referred to, refused to incur any responsibility, and expose themselves to the reproaches of their daughters, by urging them to an abridgment of the trial, of which they might afterwards repent.