WOMAN S EIGHTS. 



267 



minded women who are clamorous for promotion to the dignity 

 of masters to know that their dark sisters are in hearty sym- 

 pathy with them. It may be suggestive also to mention the 

 method by which this supremacy is maintained. And let it not 

 be imagined for a moment that they are so artless as to parade 

 their ambition in the matter, or that they are so unwise as to 

 assert an authority, which may be maintained by gentler means, 

 with force. There, as most commonly in civilized communities, 

 the power lies in the feminine charms, and in the joy or pain of 

 a smile bestowed or withholden. Sekwebu witnessed the scene 

 of the incident mentioned above, and heard the man say to his 

 wife, in the midst of their endearments, " Do you think that I 

 would ever leave you ? " and then turning to himself ask, " Do you 

 think I would leave this pretty woman ? is she not pretty ? " 

 Indeed the potency of beauty is no more confined to our boastful 

 society than is the song of the birds confined to our cultured 

 groves. 



It is not only true that woman exerts a manifest influence 

 among the tribes of the Banyai, it is also true that the customs 

 of social life recognize her dignity very decidedly. Wives are 

 not obtained by purchase as in most parts of southern Africa. 

 The fortunate, groom cannot assume any authority over his new- 

 found bride ; he must go to the home of her parents and live 

 there, and the mothers-in-law of Africa are not more careful for 

 the happiness of this class than are those of other nations ; the 

 poor fellow has, therefore, sometimes at least, need of very patient 

 love, and if he has spirit enough to resist, he may go alone as he 

 came, or indemnify the family for the loss of his wife and chil- 

 dren. The husband, though, does not seem to consider the de- 

 ference which he pays his wife a hard service, but renders it with 

 manifest pride and pleasure. It is a pitiful excess of selfishness 

 and self-conceit which makes a man count it a degradation to 

 confess his respect for the judgment or pleasure of the woman 

 who commits her life to his keeping and consecrates her love 

 and labor to his happiness ; and it is beautiful promise of loftiest 

 possibilities of refinement that, in the midst of so much ignorance 

 and depravity, there should be in Africa ever so little respect 

 for woman. 



But these gentle and obedient husbands, though they win our 



