Hobbies
Jun 20, 2008 5:32:13 GMT -5
Post by Tamás on Jun 20, 2008 5:32:13 GMT -5
"Less than no virtue to speak of?" *he said, seeming rather impressed for an instant.
True, these Europeans had different ways than those of Delicia--his people were not so foolish as to judge a woman's worth solely on her ability to maintain her chastity. If anything surprised him, it was the girl's air of experience for someone her age. Boys of the nomadic tribes often found their first full sexual experiences around the age of sixteen or seventeen, but few girls were bold enough to match their counterparts, and often waited another year or two.
The maturity of the young women led them to more seriously consider their bedmates, as pregnancy was a likely result, rather than the rash young men and boys who scattered their seed with impetuosity borne of placing the heated desires which more crude cultures called "needs" above the practicality of their situations. Still, any child born into the tents of the clans could never be called wholly unwanted--the community was only too happy to help raise even a sickly child amongst themselves, as the simple harsh realities of their lives made them aware of the fragile worth of every life.
Whether one died in a bed of silk and goose-down or on a woven rush-mat on the bare earth made little difference: all were prone to the same plagues, injuries, and maladies which bit into the lifespans of those who sequestered themselves in fine houses of brick and marble and those who called tents and open fires their home.
The people of Delicia were not pitiably poor in the manner of those in the city--no one of the clans went hungry, or cold, and sickness was readily treated with home remedies as useful as the receipts given by surgeons trained in the most noted universities. Blessed with hardy constitutions and robust health given to them by honest hard work and a life spent much out of doors, one may consider the "poor" had the upper hand over those idle rich who too often fancied themselves delicate, resorting to smelling-salts and laudanum to ease their phantom complaints.*
"You have not become like your adopted society, then," *he murmured thoughtfully.*
True, these Europeans had different ways than those of Delicia--his people were not so foolish as to judge a woman's worth solely on her ability to maintain her chastity. If anything surprised him, it was the girl's air of experience for someone her age. Boys of the nomadic tribes often found their first full sexual experiences around the age of sixteen or seventeen, but few girls were bold enough to match their counterparts, and often waited another year or two.
The maturity of the young women led them to more seriously consider their bedmates, as pregnancy was a likely result, rather than the rash young men and boys who scattered their seed with impetuosity borne of placing the heated desires which more crude cultures called "needs" above the practicality of their situations. Still, any child born into the tents of the clans could never be called wholly unwanted--the community was only too happy to help raise even a sickly child amongst themselves, as the simple harsh realities of their lives made them aware of the fragile worth of every life.
Whether one died in a bed of silk and goose-down or on a woven rush-mat on the bare earth made little difference: all were prone to the same plagues, injuries, and maladies which bit into the lifespans of those who sequestered themselves in fine houses of brick and marble and those who called tents and open fires their home.
The people of Delicia were not pitiably poor in the manner of those in the city--no one of the clans went hungry, or cold, and sickness was readily treated with home remedies as useful as the receipts given by surgeons trained in the most noted universities. Blessed with hardy constitutions and robust health given to them by honest hard work and a life spent much out of doors, one may consider the "poor" had the upper hand over those idle rich who too often fancied themselves delicate, resorting to smelling-salts and laudanum to ease their phantom complaints.*
"You have not become like your adopted society, then," *he murmured thoughtfully.*