# Martin, Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, 1703 > [!cite] > Martin, Martin. *A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland: Containing a Full Account of Their Situation, Extent, Soils, Products, Harbours, Bays, … With a New Map of the Whole, … To Which Is Added a Brief Description of the Isles of Orkney, and Schetland*. Andrew Bell, 1703. Google Books. [https://books.google.com.au/books?id=jndbAAAAQAAJ&pg](https://books.google.com.au/books?id=jndbAAAAQAAJ&pg). --- ‘It was an Ancient Custom in the Island, that a Man should take a Maid to his Wife and keep her the space of a Year without marrying her, and if she pleased him all the while, he married her at the end of the Year, and legitimated these children, but if he did not love Her, he return’d her to her Parents and her Portion also, and if there happened to be any Children, they were kept by the Father, but this unreasonable Custom was long ago brought into disuse.’ [[Martin, Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, 1703|(Martin 1703, 114)]] ^c12b5f