It is worthy of note that testimony as to the chastity of wild races
generally comes from mere travellers among them, ignorant of their
language and intimate habits, whereas the writings of those who have
dwelt among them give one a very different idea. As the Rev. Mr.
Holden remarks (187), those who have "boasted of the chastity, purity,
and innocence of heathen life" have not been "behind the scenes."
Here, for instance, is Geo. McCall Theal, who lived among the Kaffir
people twenty years, filling various positions among them, varying
from a mission teacher to a border magistrate, and so well acquainted
with their language that he was able to collect and print a volume on
_Kaffir Folk Lore_. Like all writers who have made a specialty of a
subject, he is naturally somewhat biased in favor of it, and this
gives still more weight to his words on negative points. Regarding the
question of chastity he says:

"Kaffir ideas of some kinds of morality are very low.
The custom is general for a married woman to have a
lover who is not her husband, and little or no disgrace
attaches to her on this account. The lover is generally
subject to a fine of no great amount, and the husband
may give the woman a beating, but that finishes the
penalty."

The German missionary Neuhaus bears witness to the fact that (like the
Bushmen and most other Africans) the Kaffirs are in one respect lower
than the lowest beasts, inasmuch as for the sake of filthy lucre
parents often marry off their daughters before they have attained
maturity. Girls of eight to ten are often given into the clutches of
wealthy old men who are already supplied with a harem. Concerning
girls in general, and widows, we are told that they can do whatever
they please, and that they only ask their lovers not to be imprudent,
as they do not wish to lose their liberty and assume maternal duties
too soon if they can help it. Lichtenstein says (I., 264) that

"a traveller remaining some time with a horde easily
finds an unmarried young woman with whom he contracts
the closest intimacy; nay, it is not uncommon, as a
mark of hospitality, to offer him one as a companion,"

and no wonder, for among these Kaffirs there is "no feeling of love in
marriage" (161). The German missionary Alberti relates (97) that
sometimes a Kaffir girl is offered to a man in marriage. Having
assured himself of her health, he claims the further privilege of a
night's acquaintance; after which, if she pleases him, he proceeds to
bargain for her permanent possession. Another competent and reliable
observer, Stephen Kay, corresponding member of the South African
Institution, who censures Barrow sharply for his incorrect remarks on
Kaffir morals, says:

"No man deems it any sin whatever to seduce his
neighbor's wife: his only grounds of fear are the
probability of detection, and the fine demanded by law
in such cases. The females, accustomed from their youth
up to this gross depravity of manners, neither
manifest, nor apparently feel, any delicacy in stating
and describing circumstances of the most shameful
nature before an assemblage of men, whose language is
often obscene beyond description" (105). "Fornication
is a common and crying sin. The women are well
acquainted with the means of procuring miscarriage; and
those means are not unfrequently resorted to without
bringing upon the offender any punishment or disgrace
whatever.... When adultery is clearly proved the
husband is generally fully satisfied with the fine
usually levied upon the delinquent.... So degraded
indeed are their views on subjects of this nature ...
that the man who has thus obtained six or eight head of
cattle deems it a fortunate circumstance rather than
otherwise; he at once renews his intimacy with the
seducer, and in the course of a few days becomes as
friendly and familiar with him as ever" (141-42).

"Whenever the Kaffir monarch hears of a young woman
possessed of more than ordinary beauty, and at all
within his reach, he unceremoniously sends for her or
fetches her himself.... Seldom or never does any young
girl, residing in his immediate neighborhood, escape
defilement after attaining the age of puberty (165)."
"Widows are constantly constrained to be the servants
of sin" (177).

"The following singular usage obtains universally ...
all conjugal intercourse is entirely suspended from the
time of accouchement until the child be completely
weaned, which seldom takes place before it is able to
run about. Hence during the whole of that period, an
illicit and clandestine intercourse with strangers is
generally kept up by both parties, to the utter
subversion of everything like attachment and connubial
bliss. Something like affection is in some instances
apparent for awhile, but it is generally of
comparatively short duration."

Fritsch (95) describes a Kaffir custom called _U'pundhlo_ which has
only lately been abolished:

"Once in awhile a troupe of young men was sent from the
principal town to the surrounding country to capture
all the unmarried girls they could get hold of and
carry them away forcibly. These girls had to serve for
awhile as concubines of strangers visiting the court.
After a few days they were allowed to go and their
places were taken by other girls captured in the same
way."

Before the Kaffirs came under the influence of civilization, this
custom gave no special offence; "and why should it?" adds Fritsch,
"since with the Kaffirs marriageable girls are morally free and their
purity seems a matter of no special significance." When boys reach the
age of puberty, he says (109), they are circumcised;

"thereupon, while they are in the transition stage between
boyhood and manhood, they are almost entirely independent of
all laws, especially in their sexual relations, so that they
are allowed to take possession with impunity of any
unmarried women they choose."

The Kaffirs also indulge in obscene dances and feasts. Warner says
(97) that at the ceremony of circumcision virtue is polluted while yet
in its embryo. "A really pure girl is unknown among the raw Kaffirs,"
writes Hol. "All demoraln sense of purity and shame is lost." While
superstition forbids the marrying of first cousins as incestuous, real
"incest in its worst forms"--between mother and sons--prevails. At the
ceremony called _Ntonjane_ the young girls "are degraded and polluted
at the very threshold of womanhood, and every spark of virtuous
feeling annihilated" (197, 207, 185).

"Immorality," says Fritsch (112),

"is too deeply rooted in African blood to make it difficult
to find an occasion for indulging in it; wherefore the
custom of celebrating puberty, harmless in itself, is made
the occasion for lascivious practices; the unmarried girls
choose companions with whom they cohabit as long as the
festival lasts ... usually three or four days."

After giving other details, Fritsch thus sums up the situation:

"These diverse facts make it clear that with these tribes
(Ama-Xosa) woman stands, if not morally, at least
judicially, little above cattle, and consequently it is
impossible to speak of family life in one sense of the
word."

In his _Nursery Tales of the Zulus_ (255) Callaway gives an account,
in the native language as well as in the English, of the license
indulged in at Kaffir puberty festivals. Young men assemble from all
quarters. The maidens have a "girl-king" to whom the men are obliged
to give a present before they are allowed to enter the hut chosen for
the meeting. "The young people remain alone and sport after their own
fancies in every way." "It is a day of filthiness in which everything
may be done according to the heart's desire of those who gather around
the _umgongo_." The Rev. J. MacDonald, a man of scientific
attainments, gives a detailed account of the incredibly obscene
ceremonies to which the girls of the Zulu-Kaffirs are subjected, and
the licentious yet Malthusian conduct of the young folks in general
who "separate into pairs and sleep _in puris naturalibus_, for that is
strictly ordained by custom." The father of a girl thus treated feels
honored on receiving a present from her partner.[140]


INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE FOR--COWS

The utter indifference of the Kaffirs to chastity and their
licentiousness, approved and even prescribed by national custom, were
not the only obstacle to the growth of sentiments rising above mere
sensuality. Commercialism was another fatal obstacle. I have already
quoted Hahn's testimony that a Kaffir "would rather have big herds of
cattle than a good-looking wife." Dohne asserts (Shooter, 88) that "a
Kaffir loves his cattle more than his daughter," and Kay (111) tells
us that

"he is scarcely ever seen shedding tears, excepting
when the chief lays violent hands upon some part of his
horned family; this pierces him to the heart and
produces more real grief than would be evinced over the
loss of wife and child."

On another page (85) he says that in time of war the poor women fall
into the enemy's hands, because

"their husbands afford them no assistance or protection
whatever. The preservation of the cattle constitutes
the grand object of their solicitude; and with these,
which are trained for the purpose, they run at an
astonishing rate, leaving both wives and children to
take their chances."

Such being the Kaffir's relative estimation of cows and women, we
might infer that in matrimonial arrangements bovine interests were
much more regarded than any possible sentimental considerations; and
this we find to be the case. Barrow (149) tells us that

"the females being considered as the property of their
parents, are always disposed of by sale. The common
price of a wife is an ox or a couple of cows. Love with
them is a very confined passion, taking but little hold
on the mind. When an offer is made for the purchase of
a daughter, she feels little inclination to refuse; she
considers herself as an article at market, and is
neither surprised, nor unhappy, nor interested, on
being told that she is about to be disposed of. There
is no previous courtship, no exchange of fine
sentiments, no nice feelings, no attentions to catch
the affections and to attach the heart."[141]


BARGAINING FOR BRIDES

The Rev. L. Grout says in his _Zululand_ (166):

"So long as the government allows the custom called
_ukulobolisha_, the selling of women in marriage for
cattle, just so long the richer and so, for the most
part, the older and the already married man will be
found, too often, the successful suitor--not indeed at
the feet of the maiden, for she is allowed little or no
right to a voice as to whom she shall marry, but at the
hands of her heathen proprietor, who, in his
degradation, looks less at the affections and
preferences of his daughter than at the surest way of
filling his kraal with cattle, and thus providing for
buying another wife or two."

So purely commercial is the transaction that if a wife proves very
fruitful and healthy, a demand for more cattle is made on her husband
(165). Should she be feeble or barren he may send her back to her
father and demand compensation. A favorite way is to retain a wife as
a slave and go on marrying other girls as fast as the man's means
allow. Theal says (213) that if a wife has no children the husband has
a right to return her to her parents and if she has a marriageable
sister, take her in exchange. But the acme of commercialism is reached
in a Zulu marriage ceremony described by Shooter. At the wedding the
matrons belonging to the bridegroom's party tell the bride that too
many cows have been given for her; that she is rather plain than
otherwise, and will never be able to do a married woman's work, and
that altogether it is very kind of the bridegroom to condescend to
marry her. Then the bride's friends have their innings. They condole
with her parents on the very inadequate number of cows paid for her,
the loveliest girl in the village; declare that the husband is quite
unworthy of her, and ought to be ashamed for driving such a hard
bargain with her parents.

Leslie's assertion (194) that it is "a mistake to imagine that a girl
is sold by her father in the same manner and with the same authority
with which he would dispose of a cow," is contradicted by the
concurrent testimony of the leading authorities. Some of these have
already been cited. The reliable Fritsch says (112) of the Ama-Xosa
branch:

"It is characteristic that as a rule the inclination of
the girl to be married is never consulted, but that her
nearest male relatives select a husband for her to whom
she is unceremoniously sent. They choose, of course, a
man who can pay."

If she is a useful girl he is not likely to refuse the offer, yet he
bargains to get her as cheaply as possible (though he knows that a
Kaffir girl's chief pride is the knowledge that many heads of cattle
were paid for her). Regarding the Ama-Zulu, Fritsch says (141-42) that
the women are slaves and a wife is regarded as so much invested
capital. "If she falls ill, or remains childless, so that the man does
not get his money's worth, he often returns her to her father and asks
his cattle back." Older and less attractive women are sometimes
married off on credit, or to be paid for in instalments. "In all
this," Fritsch sums up, "there is certainly little of poetry and
romance, but it cannot be denied that under the influence of European
residents an improvement has been effected in some quarters." He
himself saw at Natal a young couple who "showed a certain interest in
each other," such as one expects of married persons; but in parts
untouched by European influence, he adds, true conjugal devotion is an
unusual thing.


AMOROUS PREFERENCES

It is probably owing to such European influences that Theal (209)
found that although a woman is not legally supposed to be consulted in
the choice of a husband, in point of fact "matches arising from mutual
love are not uncommon. In such cases, if any difficulties are arranged
by the guardians on either side, the young people do not scruple to
run away together." The word "love" in this passage is of course used
in that vague sense which indicates nothing but a preference of one
man or woman to others. That a Kaffir girl should prefer a young man
to an old suitor to the point of running away with him is to be
expected, even if there is nothing more than a merely sensual
attachment. The question how far there are any amorous preferences
among Kaffirs is an interesting one. From the fact that they prefer
their cows to their wives in moments of danger, we infer that though
they might also like one girl better than another, such preference
would be apt to prove rather weak; and this inference is borne out by
some remarks of the German missionary Alberti which I will translate:

"The sentiment of tender and chaste love is as unknown
to the Kaffir as that respect which is founded on
agreement and moral worth. The need of mutual aid in
domestic life, combined with the natural instinct for
the propagation of the species, alone seem to occasion
a union of young men and women which afterward gains
permanence through habitual intercourse and a community
of interests."

"It is true that the young man commonly seeks to gain
the favor of the girl he likes before he applies to her
parents, in which case, if his suit is accepted, the
supreme favor is at once granted him by the girl; but
inasmuch as he does not need her good will necessarily,
the parental consent being sufficient to secure
possession of her, he shows little zeal, and his peace
of mind is not in the least disturbed by a possible
refusal. Altogether, he is much less solicitous about
gaining her predilection than about getting her for the
lowest possible price."

Alberti was evidently a thinker as well as a careful observer. His
lucid remarks gives us a deep insight into primitive conditions when
love had hardly yet begun to germinate. What a worldwide difference
between this languid Kaffir wooer, hardly caring whether he gets this
girl or another, and the modern lover who thinks life not worth
living, unless he can gain the love of his chosen one. In all the
literature on the subject, I have been able to find only one case of
stubborn preference among Kaffirs. Neuhaus knew a young man who
refused for two years to marry the girl chosen for him by his father,
and finally succeeded in having his way with another girl whom he
preferred. As a matter of course, strong aversion is more frequently
manifested than decided preference, especially in the case of girls
who are compelled to marry old men. Neuhaus[142] saw a Zulu girl whose
hands had been nearly burned off by her tormentors; he knew of two
girls who committed suicide, one just before, the other just after, an
enforced marriage. Grout (167) speaks of the "various kinds of torture
resorted to by the father and friends of a girl to compel her to marry
contrary to her choice." One girl, who had fled to his house for
refuge, told him repeatedly that if delivered into the hands of her
tormentors "she would be cruelly beaten as soon as they were out of
sight and be subjected to every possible abuse, till she should comply
with the wishes of her proprietor."


ZULU GIRLS NOT COY

Where men are so deficient in sentiment and manly instincts that one
young woman seems to them about as good as another, it is hardly
strange that the women too should lack those qualities of delicacy,
gentleness, and modesty which make the weaker sex adorable. The
description of the bloody duels often fought by Kaffir women given by
the British missionary Beste (Ploss, II., 421) indicates a decidedly
Amazonian disposition. But the most suggestive trait of Kaffir women
is the lack of feminine coyness in their matrimonial preliminaries.
According to Gardiner (97),

"it is not regarded as a matter either of etiquette or
of delicacy from which side the proposal of marriage
may proceed--the overture is as often made by the women
as the men."

"Courtship," says Shooter (50), "does not always begin with the men."
Sometimes the girl's father proposes for her; and when a young woman
does not receive an early proposal, her father or brother go from
kraal to kraal and offer her till a bidder is found. Callaway (60)
relates that when a young Zulu woman is ready to be married she goes
to the kraal of the bridegroom, to stand there. She remains without
speaking, but they understand her. If they "acknowledge" her, a goat
is killed and she is entertained. If they do not like her, they give
her a burning piece of firewood, to intimate that there is no fire in
that kraal to warm herself by; she must go and kindle a fire for
herself.[143]


CHARMS AHD POEMS

Though in all this there is considerable romance, there is no evidence
of romantic love. But how about love-charms, poems, and stories?
According to Grout (171), love-charms are not unknown in Zulu land.
They are made of certain herbs or barks, reduced to a powder, and sent
by the hand of some unsuspected friend to be given in a pinch of
snuff, deposited in the dress, or sprinkled upon the person of the
party whose favor is to be won. But love-powders argue a very
materialistic way of regarding love and tell us nothing about
sentiments. A hint at something more poetic is given by the Rev. J.
Tyler (61), who relates that flowers are often seen on Zulu heads, and
that one of them, the "love-making posy," is said to foster "love."
Unfortunately that is all the information he gives us on this
particular point, and the further details supplied by him (120-22)
dash all hopes of finding traces of sentiment. The husband "eats
alone," and when the wife brings him a drink of home-made beer "she
must first sip to show there is no 'death in the pot.'" While he
guzzles beer, loafs, smokes, and gossips, she has to do all the work
at home as well as in the field, carrying her child on her back and
returning in the evening with a bundle of firewood on her head. "In
the winter the natives assemble almost daily for drinking and dancing,
and these orgies are accompanied by the vilest obscenities and evil
practices."

As regards poems Wallaschek remarks (6) that "the Kaffir in his poetry
only recognizes a threefold subject: war, cattle, and excessive
adulation of his ruler." One Kaffir love-poem, or rather
marriage-poem, I have been able to find (Shooter, 236), and it is
delightfully characteristic:

We tell you to dig well,
Come, girl of ours,
Bring food and eat it;
Fetch fire-wood
And don't be lazy.


A KAFFIR LOVE-STORY

Among the twenty-one tales collected in Theal's _Kaffir Folk Lore_
there is one which approximates what we call a love-story. As it takes
up six pages of his book it cannot be quoted entire, but in the
following condensed version I have retained every detail that is
pertinent to our inquiry. It is entitled _The Story of Mbulukazi_.

There was once a man who had two wives; one of them had
no children, wherefore he did not love her. The other
one had one daughter, who was very black, and several
children besides, but they were all crows. The barren
wife was very downcast and often wept all day.

One day two doves perching near her asked why she
cried. When they had heard her story they told her to
bring two earthen jars. Then they scratched her knees
until the blood flowed, and put it into the jars. Every
day they came and told her to look in the jars, till
one day she found in them two beautiful children, a boy
and a girl. They grew up in her hut, for she lived
apart from her husband, and he knew nothing of their
existence.

When they were big, they went to the river one day to
fetch water. On the way they met some young men, among
whom was Broad Breast, a chief's son who was looking
for a pretty girl to be his wife. The men asked for a
drink and the boy gave them all some water, but the
young chief would take it only from the girl. He was
very much smitten with her beauty, and watched her to
see where she lived. He then went home to his father
and asked for cattle with which to marry her. The
chief, being rich, gave him many fine cattle, and with
these the young man went to the husband of the girl's
mother and said: "I want to marry your daughter." So
the girl who was very black was told to come, but the
young chief said: "That is not the one I want; the one
I saw was lighter in color and much prettier." The
father replied: "I have no other children but crows."

But Broad Breast persisted, and finally the
servant-girl told the father about the other daughter.
In the evening he went to his neglected wife's hut and
to his great joy saw the boy and his sister. He
remained all night and it was agreed that the young
chief should have the girl. When Broad Breast saw her
he said: "This is the girl I meant." So he gave the
cattle to the father and married the girl, whose name
was Mbulukazi.

To appease the jealousy of the very black girl's mother
he also married that girl, and each of them received
from her father an ox, with which they went to their
new home. But the young chief did not care for the very
black girl and gave her an old rickety hut to live in
while Mbulukazi had a very nice new house. This made
the other girl jealous, and she plotted revenge, which
she carried out one day by pushing her rival over the
edge of a rock, so that she fell into the river and was
drowned. The corpse was, however, found by her favorite
ox, who licked her till her life came back, and as soon
as she was strong once more she told what had happened.

When the young chief heard the story he was angry with
the dark wife and said to her: "Go home to your father;
I never wanted you at all; it was your mother who
brought you to me." So she had to go away in sorrow and
Mbulukazi remained the great wife of the chief.

In this interesting story there are two suspicious details. Theal says
he has taken care in his collection not to give a single sentence that
did not come from native sources. He calls attention, however, to the
fact that tens of thousands of Kaffirs have adopted the religion of
Europeans and have accepted ideas from their teachers, wherefore "it
will surprise no one to learn that these tales are already undergoing
great changes among a very large section of the natives on the
border." I suspect that the touch of sentiment in the place where the
young chief will accept a drink from the girl's hand alone is such a
case of European influence, and so, in all probability is the
preference for a light complexion implied in the tale; for Shooter (p.
I) tells us expressly that to be told that he is light-colored "would
be esteemed a very poor compliment by a Kaffir."

The following passage, which occurs in another of Theal's stories
(107), shows how unceremonious Kaffir "courtship" is in relation to
the girl's wishes.

"Hlakanyana met a girl herding some goats.

"He said: 'Where are the boys of your village, that the
goats are herded by a girl?'

"The girl answered: 'There are no boys in the village.'

"He went to the father of the girl and said: 'You must
give me your daughter to be my concubine, and I will
herd the goats.'

"The father of the girl agreed to that. Then Hlakanyana
went with the goats, and every day he killed one and
ate it till all were done."


LOWER THAN BEASTS

If we now leave the degraded and licentious Kaffirs, going northward
in Eastern Africa, into the region of the lakes--Nyassa, Victoria
Nyanza and Albert Nyanza--embracing British Central, German East, and
British East Africa, we are doomed to disappointment if we expect to
find conditions more favorable to the growth of refined romantic or
conjugal love. We shall not only discover no evidence of what is
vaguely called Platonic love, but we shall find men ignoring even
Plato's injunction (_Laws_, VIII., 840) that they should not be lower
than beasts, which do not mate till they have reached the age of
maturity. H.H. Johnston, in his recent work on British Central Africa,
gives some startling revelations of aboriginal depravity. As these
regions have been known a few years only, the universality of this
depravity disproves most emphatically the ridiculous notion that
savages are naturally pure in their conduct and owe their degradation
to intercourse with corrupt white men. Johnston (409) says:

"A medical missionary who was at work for some time on
the west coast of Lake Nyassa gave me information
regarding the depravity prevalent among the young boys
in the Atonga tribe of a character not even to be
described in obscure Latin. These statements might be
applied with almost equal exactitude to boys and girls
in many other parts of Africa. As regards the little
girls, over nearly the whole of British Central Africa,
chastity before puberty is an unknown condition....
Before a girl becomes a woman (that is to say, before
she is able to conceive), it is a matter of absolute
indifference what she does, and scarcely any girl
remains a virgin after about five years of age."

Girls are often betrothed at birth, or even before, and when four or
five years old are placed at the mercy of the degraded husbands.
Capture is another method of getting a wife, and Johnston's
description of this custom indicates that individual preference is as
weak as we have found it among Kaffirs:

"The women as a rule make no very great resistance on
these occasions. It is almost like playing a game. A
woman is surprised as she goes to get water at the
stream, or when she is on her way to or from the
plantation. The man has only got to show her she is
cornered and that escape is not easy or pleasant and
she submits to be carried off. Of course there are
cases where the woman takes the first opportunity of
running back to her first husband if her captor treats
her badly, and again she may be really attached to her
first husband and make every effort to return to him
for that reason. But as a general rule they seem to
accept very cheerfully these abrupt changes in their
matrimonial existence."

In a footnote he adds:

"The Rev. Duff Macdonald, a competent authority on Yao
manners and customs, says in his book _Africana_: 'I was
told ... that a native man would not pass a solitary woman,
and that her refusal of him would be so contrary to custom
that he might kill her.' Of course this would apply only to
females that are not engaged."


COLONIES OF FREE LOVERS

Of the Taveita forest region Johnston says:

"After marriage the greatest laxity of manners is allowed
among the women, who often court their lovers under their
husband's gaze; provided the lover pays, no objection is
raised to his addresses."

And regarding the Masai (415):

"The Masai men rarely marry until they are twenty-five nor
the women until twenty. But both sexes, _avant de se
ranger_, lead a very dissolute life before marriage, the
young warriors and unmarried girls living together in free
love."

The fullest account of the Masai and their neighbors we owe to
Thomson. With the M-teita marriage is entirely a question of cows.

"There is a very great disproportion between the sexes, the
female predominating greatly, and yet very few of the young
men are able to marry for want of the proper number of
cows--a state of affairs which not unfrequently leads to
marriage with sisters, though this practice is highly
reprobated."

Of the Wa-taveta, Thomson says (113): "Conjugal fidelity is unknown,
and certainly not expected on either side; they might almost be
described as colonies of free lovers." As for life among the Masai
warriors, he says (431) that it

"was promiscuous in a remarkable degree. They may
indeed be proclaimed as a colony of free lovers.
Curiously enough the sweetheart system was largely in
vogue; though no one confined his or her attentions to
one only. Each girl in fact had several sweethearts,
and what is still stranger, this seemed to give rise to
no jealousies. The most perfect equality prevailed
between the Ditto and Elmoran, and in their savage
circumstances it was really pleasant to see how common
it was for a young girl to wander about the camp with
her arm round the waist of a stalwart warrior."[144]


A LESSON IN GALLANTRY

Crossing the waters of the Victoria Nyanza we come to Uganda, a region
which has been entertainingly described by Speke. One day, he tells us
(379), he was crossing a swamp with the king and his wives:

"The bridge was broken, as a matter of course; and the
logs which composed it, lying concealed beneath the
water, were toed successively by the leading men, that
those who followed should not be tripped up by them.
This favor the King did for me, and I in return for the
women behind; they had never been favored in their
lives with such gallantry and therefore could not
refrain from laughing. He afterward helped the girls
over a brook. The king noticed it, but instead of
upbraiding me, passed it off as a joke, and running up
to the Kamraviona, gave him a poke in the ribs and
whispered what he had seen, as if it had been a secret.
'Woh, woh!' says the Kamraviona, 'what wonders will
happen next?'"

There is perhaps no part of Africa where such an act of gallantry
would not have been laughed at as an absurd prank. In Eastern Central
Africa

"when a woman meets any man on the path, the etiquette is
for her to go off the path, to kneel, and clasp her hands to
the 'lords of creation' as they pass. Even if a female
possesses male slaves of her own she observes the custom
when she meets them on the public highway. A woman always
kneels when she has occasion to talk to a man" (Macdonald,
I., 129).

"It is interesting to meet a couple returning from a journey for
firewood," says the same writer (137). "The man goes first, carrying
his gun, bow and arrows, while the woman carries the invariable bundle
of firewood on her head." He used to amuse such parties by taking the
wife's load and putting it on the husband, telling him, 'This is the
custom in our country.' The wife has to do not only all the domestic
but all the hard field work, and the only thing the lazy husband does
in return is to mend her clothes. That constitutes her "rights;"
neglect of it is a cause for divorce! Burton notes the absence of
chivalrous ideas among the Somals (_F.F._, 122), adding that

"on first entering the nuptial hut, the bridegroom draws
forth his horsewhip and inflicts memorable chastisement upon
the fair person of his bride, with the view of taming any
lurking propensity to shrewishness."

Among the natives of Massua, on the eighth of the month of Ashur,
"boys are allowed," says Munzinger,

"to mercilessly whip any girl they may meet--a liberty
of which they make use in anything but a sentimental
way. As the girls naturally hide themselves in their
houses on this day, the boys disguise themselves as
beggars, or use some other ruse to get them out."

Adults sometimes take part in this gallant sport. But let us return to
Uganda.

The Queen of Uganda offered Speke the choice between two of her
daughters as a wife. The girls were brought and made to squat in front
of him. They had never seen him.

"The elder, who was in the prime of youth and beauty,
very large of limb, dark in color, cried considerably;
whilst the younger one ... laughed as if she thought
the change in her destiny very good fun."

He had been advised that when the marriage came off he was to chain
the girl two or three days, until she became used to him, else, from
mere fright, she might run away.

A high official also bestowed on him a favor which throws light on the
treatment of Uganda women. He had his women come in, made them strip
to the waist, and asked Speke what he thought of them. He assured him
he had paid him an unusual compliment, the Uganda men being very
jealous of one another, so much so that anyone would be killed if
found staring upon a woman, even in the highways. Speke asked him what
use he had for so many women, to which he replied,

"None whatever; the King gives them to us to keep up