AFRICA. 57 
a woman to abfent herfelf in this manner 
for feveral days : and this is one of thofs 
cuftoms which might hive been eafily taken 
for a religious ceremony, by people who, 
having obferved it only fjperlicially, did not 
fee that fiich a condudl, myfterious in ap- 
pearance, is at bottom only an adl of de- 
cency and cleanlinefs. 
Young women never have any intercourfe 
with the men until they are capable of pro- 
ducing children. They are marriageable at 
the a^e of twelve or thirteen ; and after that 
period, as foon as they meet with a young 
man agreeable to their tafte, they are per«^ 
mitted by their parents to live with him. 
In this country, where all are equal by their 
birth, provided they are males, all ranks are 
confequently equal, or rather there is no 
rank at all. Luxury and vanity, which eat 
up wealth, and make it experience fo many 
changes, in other countries, are not known 
among thefe favages : confined to the fimple 
wants of nature, the means by which they 
fupply them not being exclufive, they may 
be, and indeed they are, employed by every 
one. All the combinations of pride for the 
profperity of families, and the accumulation 
of 
