4.04 WOMAN'S RIGHTS. Chap. XXX. 



receive some beads off Sekwebu's waist, and 1 promised to 

 send four yards of calico from Tete. 



The person whom Nyakoba appointed to be our guide in- 

 troduced himself to us and bargained that his services should 

 be rewarded with a hoe. Having no objection to this proposal, 

 [ handed him the article, which he carried off in high delight 

 to show to his wife. He soon afterwards returned, and said 

 that, though he was perfectly willing to go, his wife would 

 not let him. I said, " Then bring back the hoe ;" but he 

 replied, " I want it." " Well, go with us, and you shall have 

 it." " But my wife won't let me." I remarked to my men, 

 " Did you ever hear such a fool?" They answered, " Oh, 

 that is the custom of these parts ; the wives are the masters." 

 Sekwebu informed me that he had gone to this man's house, 

 and heard him saying to his wife, " Do you think that I 

 would ever leave you ? " then, turning to Sekwebu, he asked, 

 " Do you think I would leave this pretty woman ? Is she not 

 pretty ? " We questioned the guide whom we finally got from 

 Nyakoba, an intelligent young man, who had much of the 

 Arab features, and we found the statement confirmed. When 

 a young man takes a liking to a girl of another village, and 

 the parents have no objection to the match, he is obliged to 

 live at their village, and to perform certain services for the 

 mother-in-law, such as keeping her well supplied with fire- 

 wood. If he wishes to return to his own family he is obliged 

 to leave all his children behind — they belong to the wife. 

 This is only a more stringent enforcement of the law from 

 which emanates the practice so prevalent in Africa, known to 

 Europeans as " buying wives," though it does not appear in 

 that light to the aetors. So many head of cattle or goats are 

 given to the parents of the girl, " to give her up," as it is 

 termed, i. e. to forego all claim on her offspring, and allow an 

 entire transference of her and her seed into another family. 

 If nothing is given, the family from which she has come can 

 claim the children, and I have no doubt that some prefer to 

 have their daughters married in that way, as it leads to the 

 increase of their own village. My men excited the admiration 

 of the Bambiri, who took them for a superior breed on ac- 

 count of their bravery in elephant-hunting, and tried, though 



