Forms of liarrias-e.—Engagements of marriage are made very simply, and declarations on the part of the man rarely meet with opposition. Oftentimes children are engaged. Marriage is contracted without cere mony among some tribes (Gold Coast); among others (Mandiugoes) the groom arranges a festivity, the bride is wrapped over and over in the fes tive dress of white cotton, and she is conducted by the women with songs and dances to her new hut. The purchase-money is delivered and the bride handed over. Husband and wife have no property in common, which is very significant in regard to inheritance.
Divorce.—Divorce is not much practised, from the fact that if the wife leaves her husband she must return all the presents he gave for her, and she must even pay for the children she takes with her ! On the other hand, the husband on renouncing his wife loses all he paid for her. In spite of the despicable degradation to which the Negro women are condemned, individually they are not badly treated: they share in pleasures and fes tivities, often also in state affairs—for instance, among the Alandingoes and a Monbuttu princess in male attire marched at the head of her army to many a victory (Schweinfurth). Many of the Negroes love their wives, as Schweinfurth relates about the Niam-Niam and others, and Bosmann about the Atlantic tribes. They are seldom treated with actual cruelty.
Births and Attending Ceremonies.—To be blessed with children con stitutes the greatest felicity of all Negroes. A woman who is for the first time with child has to undergo peculiar ceremonies among the tribes of the Gold Coast. She is conducted to the sea, while boys and girls throw earth at her; there she bathes, and is consecrated by the priest. The Negroes believe that the neglect of this ceremony would be punished by the death of one of her relatives or of her child. Some tribes kill deformed children and one of twins, or even both. On the other hand, children generated in adultery or prostitution are received into the family without any ado. After giving birth, while nursing, and during their periods the women are considered unclean. The child is named immediately after its birth, and often the name of the mother (Hausa, Sierra Leone) or of different relatives, or the name of the day when it was born (Gold Coast) or a reference to some important occurrence, is added. Additional namLs are earned by brave deeds in or in hunting. Subsequent children arc named by number, like the Roman Quartus, Quintus, Sextns.
Religious rites and festiritfrs are connected with the giving of the name: others take place at the time of puberty, when the boys are circum cised, and they as well as the girls must participate, among some tribes, in ceremonies which are kept secret. Circumcision is practised at the same time on several youths, who then form a certain community: they have an established costume 83, fig. 7), go about from place to place sing
ing and dancing, and are everywhere received and entertained with honor.
The children are instructed in the arts of their parents in a perfunc tory manner, but among the Mandingoes and some of the Atlantic tribes, according to Mungo Park's account, they receive regular lessons and are taught to speak the truth. The Negroes have a passionate love for their children, who are much attached to their parents, especially to the mother. Chiding words addressed to the mother is the greatest insult that can be offered a Negro. " Beat me, but do not rebuke my mother," said one of Park's Negro servants (comp. p. 79). Inheritance is through the female line.
Children obey their father, but do not love him as much as they do their mother—a natural result of polygamy. The father has unlimited power over wife and child, so that he may even sell them into slavery. This is sometimes done, but only iu case of extreme necessity or where all social relations have become completely demoralized by the slave-trade. It should be borne in mind that in Africa slaves (at least when kept by the Negroes) are not badly treated, and that consequently slavery does not appear the greatest of all evils. It is an important distinction between the Bantu and the Negroes that it is easy to speak of the former as a class, but very difficult to do so of the latter. Almost every tribe shows marked dissimilarity both in custom and language to the neighboring tribes; and as this holds good for the manner of contracting marriage, so it also holds in political institutions.
saw the father as the absolute master of the family, and we see the king an absolute ruler over the state, which is entirely con structed on a family foundation. To him everything belongs; all subjects are his slaves; he takes to wife whom he pleases; and his consent is required for the marriage of his subjects. The greatest honors therefore are paid to him; in fact, he is deemed a god. In the Niger Delta the king's sleeping-place was kept secret, and on the inquiry of Bosmann as to its whereabouts, a Negro answered, " Do you know where God sleeps? How then are we to know where the king sleeps?" He always eats alone, and it is scarcely allowable to see him eat. The sub ject crawls up to him and kisses the dust, and to stand before him would be a crime. In \Vaday the upper part of the body must be uncovered in his presence, and the subjects must change their names if they resemble his. His exterior is distinguished by great pomp: we see the sheik or sultan of Bomu in complete Arabian attire on Plate 92 (fig. I), his body guard in their strange garbs on Plate 91 (fig. 8) and Plate 92 (fig. 2). The rider and horse (fl. 91, fig. 8) are armed with a thickly-plaited coat of mail.