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168 THE POULA WOMEN. 
that civilization is more advanced among- the latter, than among- 
the Negroes ; for it has been observed, that in those countries 
where women enjoy some prerogatives, it has made more pro- 
g'ress, than in those where they are accounted as nothing. 
From various observations that I have had opportunities 
of making, I am convinced that harmony does not reign in 
these families. I have witnessed frequent and very warm 
disputes, but which w^ere not always carried so far as violence 
The causes of these quarrels, as may easily be conceived, 
^vould not appear very important to a European. They 
originated either in a dinner not being ready, or in a wife 
claiming a piece of cloth as belonging to her ; but hunger and 
the love of dress are capable of setting a house on fire in 
Africa. 
The women, however, are exclusively charged with the 
household labours ; they sleep little, for during the greater 
part of the night they are employed in pounding millet, which 
is a very fatiguing occupation. Never do they receive a kind 
word from their husbands ; never are they admitted to the 
honour of sharing their repasts : such is the state of a wife 
in Africa. 
The Poulas, since they became Mahometans, have 
renounced the favourite amusements of other blacks, dancing 
and music. I saw no other instrument among them than a 
kind of Jew's harp, the sound of which cannot be pleasing 
