Chap. IX. A FEMALE DUEL. 187 



This polite request I of course flatly refused to comply 

 with, and they did not press it. Another request 

 they made I was able to grant : this was to talk the 

 Oguizi language. I gave them a few samples of 

 French and English, but I very much doubt if they 

 could perceive the difference. They believe that 

 all white men belong to one people, and of course, 

 beyond the fact that they land on their shores from 

 the great sea, know nothing of the different nations 

 of the world or where they are situated. When I 

 asked them where they thought the Ngouyai river 

 ended, they answered, " Somewhere in the sand." 



After our long conversation I felt tired and went 

 for a walk over the prairie. This pleasant day was 

 ruffled in the evening by a violent quarrel between 

 two Ashira married women, one of them being a 

 stranger who had come to Mayolo on a visit to her 

 friends. It appeared that one of tlie men of the 

 village called this woman towards him ; and his wife, 

 on hearing of it, asked her husband what business he 

 had to call the woman, and, getting jealous, told him 

 she must be his sweetheart. The husband's reply 

 being, I suppose, not altogether satisfactory, the en- 

 raged wife rushed out to seek her supposed rival, 

 and a battle ensued. Women's fights in this country 

 always begin by their throwing off their dengui, 

 that is, stripping themselves entirely naked. The 

 challenger having thus denuded herself, her enemy 

 showed pluck and answered the challenge by promptly 

 doing the same ; so that the two elegant figures im- 

 mediately went at it, literally tooth and nail, for they 

 fought like cats, and between the rounds reviled each 



