108 HOME LIFE OF THE AFRICAN. 



a wife, she early learns that any sort of a lie, and even marital 

 infidelity, is a crime if it be discovered. 



As a woman, she is modest in deportment, as are most of the 

 vv^omen, and somevv^hat chaste, but she has no particular reason to 

 be virtuous either as a matter of education or of general practice. 

 She expects, of course, to be a wife. 



To be unmarried would be reason for taunt, as if she wert not 

 pretty, or were otherwise disagreeable. But her wishes are not 

 asked as to who the man shall be : that was settled in her childhood 

 by the parents' acceptance of a marriage fee from some rich adult 

 man, whose claim on her was made surer yearly by paying on a 

 "dowry" price. 



IMMATURE CHILD WIVES. 



When this dowry is completed, the "husband" may take her to 

 his own home as his "little" wife, even though she is only a child 

 in years. Of course, she does not, nor never will, like him. He 

 treats her kindly at first, as a daughter, to overcome her dislike. 

 She takes a place with the older women as a little servant. They 

 are not jealous of her. They welcome her as a fellow-servant, and 

 push off upon her some of their own tasks. 



Some day the "husband" will die, and she will be inherited, 

 along with his other goods, by some other man, perhaps a young 

 man whom she may fancy. Or, if her position become unendurable, 

 there is always some wifeless young fellow who is ready to comfort 

 her, or with whom she is willing ta elope if he has the energy and 

 audacity to face the quarrel that will inevitably fall on his family, 

 if they induce his act, and if they can induce the "injured husband" 

 to accept a money satisfaction instead of the usual blood feud. 



If, under fortunate circumstances and older 3^ears, she becomes, 

 by choice or promotion, the head-wife or "queen" (konde), her lot 

 is a comparatively easy one, as far as her husband's responsibility, 

 and the ill-will, spite, jealousy, and even machinations against life, 

 of the disappointed inferior wives. If the husband dies, her previous 

 life must have been a judiciously guarded one in all its acts and 

 words — even words spoken often in passion or under great provoca- 



