332 THE LAKE REGIONS OP CENTRAL AFRICA. 



the civilised " social evil" is not recognised as an evil. 

 In the economy of the affections and the intercourse 

 between the sexes, reappears that rude stage of society 

 in which ethics were new to the mind of now en- 

 lightened man. Marriage with this people — as amongst 

 all barbarians, and even the lower classes of civi- 

 lised races — is a mere affair of buying and selling. 

 A man must marry because it is necessary to his com- 

 fort, consequently the woman becomes a marketable 

 commodity. Her father demands for her as many 

 cows, cloths, and brass-wire bracelets as the suitor can 

 afford ; he thus virtually sells her, and she belongs to 

 the buyer, ranking with his other live stock. The 

 husband may sell his wife, or, if she be taken from him 

 by another man, he claims her value, which is ruled by 

 what she would fetch in the slave-market. A strong 

 inducement to marriage amongst the Africans, as 

 with the poor in Europe, is the prospective benefit to 

 be derived from an adult family ; a large progeny 

 enriches them. The African — like all barbarians, and, 

 indeed, semi-civilised people — ignores the dowry by 

 which, inverting Nature's order, the wife buys the 

 husband, instead of the husband buying the wife. Mar- 

 riage, which is an epoch amongst Christians, and an 

 event with Moslems, is with these people an incident of 

 frequent recurrence. Polygamy is unlimited, and the 

 chiefs pride themselves upon the number of their wives, 

 varying from twelve to three hundred. It is no disgrace 

 for an unmarried woman to become the mother of a 

 family ; after matrimony there is somewhat less laxity. 

 The mgoni or adulterer, if detected, is punishable by a 

 fine of cattle, or, if poor and weak, he is sold into 

 slavery ; husbands seldom, * however, resort to such 

 severities, the offence, which is considered to be against 



