1272. After these things, I was shown how the women among them dressed. On their head they had a long, rounded, black hat with a peak in front. ¹ Their faces were small. The men, on the other hand, were shaggy with hair.

I was shown also how proud they were to have large numbers of children. Wherever they ventured, they took their children with them, letting the children walk in front in a curved line. But they were told that animals — even the worst ones — all love their offspring, and that this provides no proof of virtue in them. They could have loved their children not out of conceit or pride, it was said, but out of a desire to increase world population for the sake of the common good, and more especially to swell the number of people in heaven. ² So they could have made the Lord's kingdom their goal, and then they would have exhibited a genuine love for children.

Footnotes:

3589. I was then shown how their women dressed their heads, namely with a round black cap, quite long, and their small white face within. [Drawing, apparently of a cap.] And because they had loved little children, they felt great delight in having the little ones walk before them as they were in fact portrayed to me, walking ahead in a curved line, the women showing them off. I spoke with them about the love of little children, saying that it exists also with all wild animals, thus also with the worst people. But if they had loved the little ones not for the sake of self-love and self-glory, but so that human society might increase for the common good, and even more so that the number of those in heaven might be multiplied - thus for the sake of heavenly societies, thus for the sake of the Lord - then their love toward little children had been genuine. But this was not the case with them.

Of the men it was said that as they grew up, they became ugly, hairy, with hair hanging around their faces, and I realized that this was a result of their persuasion. It was said that their women were small. 1748, 16 Oct.