Suahili-Land and the Wasuahili. 67 
Marriage is celebrated by " harusi" (festivals), to which 
all relatives are invited, and a large number of outside 
friends. Processions, dancing, singing, gun-firing, 
joking, and match-making are the usual accompa- 
niments. Divorce is easily effected when desired. 
Marriage among the slaves can hardly be said to exist. 
Small dowries are paid, and contracts are sometimes 
signed, but the bond is as fragile as a spider s web. 
They have a curious custom of this kind. The woman 
provides house and furniture. In her house she is 
queen. Should her husband dare to offend her, she 
at once reminds him that she is mistress ; that the 
house and furniture are hers ; and that if he is not 
satisfied with the treatment he receives, he can leave 
and make room for some one else. The insulted and 
indignant man seizes his stick, or his sword, and flees 
from the termagant to seek a home elsewhere. So 
it may happen that married couples may part and be 
competent to re-marry a dozen times in the course of 
their lives. Children born to slaves are, of course, the 
property of the masters, and may be dealt with as 
he pleases. These things are mentioned in deep 
shame and pity. 
Marriage being such as it is, home, as we understand 
it in England, does not exist among the Wasuahili. 
Free women are confined to their dark houses, and 
are scarcely ever permitted to see the light of day. 
When they go to visit their female friends, it is gener- 
ally by night, and even then they are surrounded by 
slaves, cloths being stretched over them, like a tent, to 
prevent their being seen. Home to them is a prison- 
house into which no social comfort can enter ; they are 
confined to the society of their own sex, chiefly to that 
