In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
estimated by the number of his wives and the 
men seem willing to make almost any sacrifice 
for a little fictitious notoriety. This young man’s 
unhappiness was not caused by strife between 
himself and his wives, but by the strife between 
his wives on account of jealousy. 
Troubles about their children and their earthly 
^possessions are also sources of misunderstanding. 
In passing a compound, I would sometimes hear 
quarrelling among the women, then the voice of 
an angry man, then something like blows with a 
rod. Everybody from the bale down would put 
on “ company manners” as soon as I entered and 
I could not tell what had taken place; but my in¬ 
terpreter would afterward explain that some hus¬ 
band had given his wives a whipping to stop a 
childish and silly brawl over some trifle. They 
are very much like children and do not bear 
malice as a general thing when they have been 
punished by their lords for bad behavior. But 
the husband cannot always trust them, especially 
when they are of other nationalities than his 
own. 
The poisoning of the husband by the wife for 
some cause is not infrequent. One of my ac¬ 
quaintances, an old man, bought a young wife in 
the market. Now this captive maiden had a 
loo 
