CH. v.] "A Good Wife" iii 



does one see how deep rooted and how world--nide are 

 all the springs of human feeling, whether of love and joy, 

 or death and sadness ; in every land and in every breast 

 is written the great truth, " One touch of nature makes 

 the whole world kin." 



One night after dinner a bevy of dusky beauties had 

 gathered around our mats, and to afford some amuse- 

 ment, I showed them several carte cle visite portraits of 

 friends which I had with me. They were particularly 

 interested in that of one lady, and examined it very 

 attentively; not a bead or button escaped then- quick 

 eyes ; but they soon began asking questions. Was she 

 married ? How many children had she ? Was she a 

 good wife ? I asked what they meant by the last ques- 

 tion. "Well," they answered, "did she bring plenty 

 of firewood and kaladi in? and could she clean padi 

 (rice) well?" Thus a woman among these thrifty vil- 

 lagers earns her good name as a wife by her capacity 

 for physical labour. This is also so among other savage 

 races. The Indian girls on the north-west coast of 

 North America in like manner endeavour to excel each 

 other in the quantity of quamash (Camassia esculenta) 

 roots they collect, their fame as future good wives de- 

 pending on their activity in the Quamash plains. They 

 were much interested in all particulars of dress as shown 

 by the carte ; but one gui regretted the absence of rattan 

 coils aroimd the stomach and " chawats " of thick brass 

 wire on the wrists, and more to the like effect, aU from 

 the Kiau standpoint — for Kiau and its simple fashions 

 are held to be iaviolable. Kiau is aU the world to 

 them ! 



The morning we left, I believe all were sorry to part 

 with us, and they came to the top of the hiU to see us 

 off. On loading our men, we found that we had four 



