The Lamanite daughters were twenty-four young women who gathered at a place in Shemlon to sing, dance, and make merry (Mosiah 20:1). The priests of King Noah, hiding in the wilderness after fleeing the city of Nephi, watched the women and, when only a few had gathered to dance, seized all twenty-four and carried them off (Mosiah 20:5).
When the Lamanites found their daughters missing, they blamed the people of Limhi and sent their armies, with the king himself leading, to destroy them (Mosiah 20:6-7). Limhi’s forces ambushed and drove back the attackers and captured the wounded Lamanite king, who explained he had attacked because Limhi’s people had carried away the daughters (Mosiah 20:12-15). Limhi knew nothing of the matter until his captain Gideon identified Noah’s priests as the abductors; Limhi told the king, who was pacified toward Limhi’s people (Mosiah 20:16-24).
The daughters were not recovered. A Lamanite army that had pursued Limhi’s people became lost in the wilderness and came upon the priests in a place they called Amulon, where the priests had taken the women as wives (Mosiah 23:30-31). Their leader was Amulon (Mosiah 23:32). When the Lamanites were about to destroy the priests, Amulon sent the daughters to plead for their husbands, and the Lamanites spared the men because of their wives (Mosiah 23:33-34). The priests then joined the Lamanites (Mosiah 23:35). The children of these marriages later refused to be called by their fathers’ names, taking upon themselves the name of Nephi to be numbered among the Nephites (Mosiah 25:12).