Listen, my young brothers. What your mothers hinted and were ashamed to speak openly, they have turned over to me to tell you everything plainly, as it ought to be told. They spoke to you of being straight for they wanted to prepare you to be good and upright. And they said that you would start on your way of life erect as you now are. On your way you will meet a good-looking young married woman or a ripe girl who is drinking tobacco [dipping snuff]. But you are carrying a little horn of tobacco in your belt. This introduces the "temptress" [whom your mothers mentioned] and this is what I have to explain.

This young wife says to you, "Give me some tobacco." And you say to her, "I have none, little mother." Then she says to you, "Tscha, why are you so stingy with your tobacco, my friend?" And you say to her, "Tscha, if I am stingy with it, have I ever drunk of your tobacco?" And she answers, "Did you ever ask me to drink of mine and I refused you?" And you say to her, "My girl, if I asked you to give me some would you be willing?" And she answers, "Why shouldn’t I be willing?"

When you have gone that far the matter goes further. That is the way of the temptress, precisely that. You take out tobacco and give it to her, and you think, "Well, well, she loves me!" When the affair progresses you arrange a place of meeting, and when you are together you do what you will. And then an affliction will come upon your body and you will hover between life and death (that is, he will be sick because the divine person [ancestral spirit] is angry).

That is what your mothers instructed me to explain. If you have done a thing of that kind you will acquire unsuitableness. You will no longer be without defect, you will be no longer quite upright, you will become crooked. Then neither wise old man nor woman can teach you. You will be called a marriage outlaw. People will say that you are damaged.

That is why your mothers say that a temptress will seduce you and you will get a hump. Therefore I say, if you meet one who tries to draw you into a conversation, just go on your way. If you want to give her tobacco shake it out in this way (showing how he shall hastily shake it into his hand and hand it to her with averted face). Give her so or so much and look in another direction. Give it as if you did not want to talk. So the second time, and you will be married unimpaired, and will have no crook which will make you hunchbacked. You will be judged as an upright person.¹

¹Gutmann, B.n/an/an/an/an/a, , 670 (C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. By permission).