Chap. VI. COAL AT TETTE. 145 



about to be married to a young lady of no less illustrious 

 a name than Victoria Alexandrina, the daughter of one of the 

 richest merchants of Tette. But her mother had been living- 

 only in a state of concubinage ; and, to legitimatize the chil- 

 dren, the marriage of the parents was first celebrated, and then 

 Terrazao received his bride, and another gentleman her sister 

 on the same day. With our laws it seems to be a pity that 

 those who have the misfortune to be born out of wedlock 

 should be condemned, for no sin of their own, to bear the 

 stain through life. 



In the wedding processions, the brides and bridegrooms are 

 carried in hammocks slung to poles, called machillas. The 

 female slaves, dressed in all their finery, rejoice in the happi- 

 ness of their masters and mistresses. The males carry the 

 machillas, or show their gladness by discharging their 

 muskets. The friends of the young couple form part of the 

 procession behind the machillas, dressed usually in black 

 dress-coats and tall chimney-pot hats, which to us outlandish 

 spectators look more hideous now than they ever did at 

 home. The women, as seen in the woodcut, stand admiring 

 their neighbour's finery, balancing their water-pots grace- 

 fully on their heads; while all the invited guests pro- 

 ceed to wash down the dust, raised by the crowd, in copious 

 potations, followed by feasting, dancing, and joyous merry- 

 making. 



About the only interesting object in the vicinity of Tette is 

 the coal a few miles to the north. There, in the feeders of 

 the stream Revubue, it crops out in cliff sections. The seams 

 are from four to seven feet in thickness ; one measured was 

 found to be twenty-five feet thick. That on the surface 

 contains much shale, but, a shaft having been run in horizon- 

 tally for some twenty-five or thirty feet, the quality improved, 



