A motion of the lips, however, or a mutter--these are altogether fatal.

Not even a toe must move in mute agony; nor may even a muscle of the eyelid give an uneasy and involuntary twitch.

If the candidate fails in a minor degree, he is promptly put back, to come up again for the next examination; but in the event of his being unable to stand the torture, he is contemptuously told to go and herd with the women--than which there is no more humiliating expression.
While yet the candidate's wounds are streaming with blood, he is required to run with lightning speed for two or three miles and fetch back from a given spot a kind of toy lance planted in the ground.

Then, having successfully passed the triple ordeals of fasting, stabbing, and running against time, and without food and water, the candidate, under the eyes of his admiring father, is at length received into the ranks of the bravest warriors, and is allowed to take a wife.

At the close of the ceremony, the flow of blood from the candidate's really serious flesh- wounds is stopped by means of spiders' webs, powdered charcoal, and dry clay powder.
With regard to the girls, I am afraid they received but scant consideration.
Judged by our standard, the women were far from handsome.