Its comparatively innocent and harmless character
has, however, been fearfully distorted and maligned by irresponsible
satirists, and prejudiced historians. Take, for example, the following
passage from Knickerbocker's _History of New York_,[22] wherein he
pretends to describe "the curious device among these sturdy barbarians
[the Connecticut colonists], to keep up a harmony of interests, and
promote population. * * * * They multiplied to a degree which would be
incredible to any man unacquainted with the marvellous fecundity of this
growing country. This amazing increase may, indeed, be partly ascribed
to a singular custom prevalent among them, commonly known by the name of
_bundling_--a superstitious rite observed by the young people of both
sexes, with which they usually terminated their festivities, and which
was kept up with religious strictness by the more bigoted and vulgar
part of the community. This ceremony was likewise, in those primitive
times, considered as an indispensable preliminary to matrimony; their
courtships commencing where ours usually finish, by which means they
acquired, that intimate acquaintance with each other's good qualities
before marriage, which has been pronounced by philosophers the sure
basis of a happy union.
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