334 ETHNOLOGY 



tenderness known to other races and other colours. 

 It is perfectly safe to say that the negro of this 

 part of Africa is wholly unconscious of those feelings 

 of aiFectionate regard for his spouse which would 

 be natural to the European of any country. It is 

 true that the flight, capture, or death of a wife 

 aiFects him considerably, but the sensation he ex- 

 periences is not grief so much as annoyance and 

 resentment at the prospect of having to go again 

 through an immensity of trouble, and incur no small 

 expense before he can supply the place of his absent 

 helpmate. 



The marriage customs vary somewhat among the 

 various tribes, and indeed in each there are several 

 ways in which the happy event can be successfully 

 compassed. It may, for example, happen that one 

 man desiring to strengthen the bonds of friendship 

 which may unite his family with that of a neighbour, 

 may propose an alliance on behalf of one of his 

 small sons, a boy of six or seven years old perhaps, 

 with a baby daughter of his friend. As soon as 

 the value and amount of the initial presents have 

 been decided upon, a formal betrothal takes place, 

 and the two children are taught to regard each as 

 the other's future husband or wife. The marriage 

 does not, of course, take place for years, and in 

 the meantime the youth, doubtless assisted thereto 

 by his family, finds a sufficiency of cloth and beads 

 to clothe his small fiancee, who, in turn, frequently 

 acknowledges her acquiescence in the arrangement 

 by cooking his food for him. I never heard of any 

 case of either of the parties attempting to repudiate 

 the contract when the time came to fulfil it, but if 



