114 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



It is said that the woman is always asked by her 

 fiance before the latter goes to her father to make 

 his bargain about buying her. Prince Krapotkine's 

 idea that savages adhere to their unwritten marri- 

 age laws quite as closely as civilised people to their 

 written ones is in a sense true. This is because 

 the law is so very indefinite. A chief can obtain 

 as a wife anybody in the district that he wishes, 

 and as a rule there is no difficulty for an ordinary 

 man in obtaining any woman as a wife, provided 

 he can pay her father the amount required of cloth 

 and cattle. If the woman is badly treated and 

 runs away, she is brought back to her husband 

 and thoroughly beaten. In rare cases I fancy she 

 can remain with her father provided he gives back 

 to her husband the amount received for her. 



If a man is tired of his wife, he simply tells her 

 to go, but this does not often happen, because 

 women are useful as field hands ; and seeing that a 

 man can have as many wives as his means allow, 

 one can realise how simple it is to keep such an 

 unwritten marriage law ! In fact, the idea of 

 unfaithfulness in the sense in which it is under- 

 stood by Europeans never, I think, enters the 

 heads of natives. They are really fond of their 

 children, but I do not think their affection for 

 their wives is at all obvious. 



Theft is punished by beating, and a man is 

 usually tied up till he returns what he stole, or he 

 may be sold as a slave. 



