THE CONGO IN 1863. 
93 
they find her faulty in any of these points, they imme- 
diately send her back again to her parents.” The 
woman, not being looked upon the worse for being 
returned into stores, soon afterwards underwent another 
trial, perhaps with success. Converts were fined nine 
crowns for such irregularities. “ But, oh ! ” exclaims a 
good father, “what pains do we take to bring them to 
marry the lover, and how many ridiculous arguments and 
reasons do they bring to excuse themselves from this 
duty and restraint.” He tells us how he refused abso- 
lution to a dying woman, unless she compelled her 
daughter to marry a man with whom she was “ living 
upon trial.” The mother answered wisely enough, 
“ Father, I will never give my daughter cause to curse 
me after I am dead, by obliging her to wedlock where 
she does not fancy.” Whereupon the priest replied, 
“ What ! do you not stand more in awe of a temporal 
than an eternal curse ? ” and, working upon the feelings 
of the girl, who began to tremble and to weep, extorted 
from her a promise to accept the “ feigned husband.” 
He adds, “ Notwithstanding this, some obstinate mothers 
have rather chosen to die unconfessed, than to concern 
themselves with the marriage of their daughters.” 
Being obliged to attend Communion at Easter, these 
temporary couples would part on the first day of Lent ; 
obtain absolution and, a week afterwards, either cohabit 
once more or find other partners. The “ indiscreet 
method of courtship,” popularly known as “ bundling,” 
here existed, and was found by Caillie amongst the 
southern Moors : “ When everybody is at rest, the man 
creeps into his intended’s tent, and remains with her till 
daybreak.” 
An energetic attempt was made to abolish polygamy, 
which, instead of diminishing population as some 
sciolists pretend, caused the country to swarm like 
maritime China. Father Carli, who also dilates upon 
the evil practice of the sexes living together on trial, 
candidly owns that his main difficulty lay in “ bringing 
the multitude to keep to one wife, they being wholly 
averse to that law.” Yet old travellers declare that 
