AFRICAN CHARACTER. 



333 



vested property, being held to be lighter than petty 

 larceny. Under the influence of jealousy, murders and 

 mutilations have been committed, but they are rare and 

 exceptional. Divorce is readily effected by turning 

 the spouse out of doors, and the children become the 

 father's property. Attachment to home is powerful in 

 the African race, but it regards rather the comforts and 

 pleasures of the house, and the unity of relations 

 and friends, than the fondness of family. Husband, 

 wife, and children have through life divided interests, 

 and live together with scant appearance of affection. 

 Love of offspring can have but little power amongst a 

 people who have no preventive for illegitimacy, and 

 whose progeny may be sold at any time. The children 

 appear undemonstrative and unafFectionate, as those of 

 the Somal. Some attachment to their mothers breaks 

 out, not in outward indications, but by surprise, as it 

 were : 44 Mamd ! m&md ! " — mother ! mother ! — is a 

 common exclamation in fear or wonder. When child- 

 hood is passed, the father and son become natural ene- 

 mies, after the manner of wild beasts. Yet they are a 

 sociable race, and the sudden loss of relatives some- 

 times leads from grief to hypochondria and^insanity, 

 resulting from the inability of their minds to bear any 

 unusual strain. It is probable that a little learning 

 would make them mad, like the Widad, or priest of the 

 Somal, who, after mastering the reading of the Koran, 

 becomes unfit for any exertion of judgment or common 

 sense. To this over-development of sociability must 

 be ascribed the anxiety always shown to shift, evade, 

 or answer blame. The " ukosa," or transgression, is 

 never accepted ; any number of words will be wasted in 

 proving the worse the better cause. Hence also the 

 favourite phrase, " Mbaya we ! " — thou art bad ! — a 



