"The negroes, whether Mahomedan or Pagan, allow a plurality of wives. The Mahomedans alone are, by their religion, confined to four; and as the husband commonly pays a great price for each, he requires from all of them the utmost deference and submission, and beats them more like hired servants than companions." [[104]]
BANISERILE. "One of our slatus was a native of this place, from which he had been absent three years. This man invited me to go with him to his house; at the gate of which his friends met him with many expressions of joy, shaking hands with him, embracing him, and singing and dancing before him. As soon as he had seated himself upon a mat, by the threshold of his door, a young woman (his intended bride) brought a little water in a calabash, and kneeling down before him, desired him to wash his hands; when he had done this, the girl, with a tear of joy sparkling in her eyes, drank the water; this being considered as the greatest proof she could possibly give him of her fidelity and attachment." [[105]]
THE KAFFERS. The principal article of their trade with the Tambookie nation, is the exchange of cattle for their young women. Almost every chief has Tambookie wives, though they pay much dearer for them than for those of their own people. Polygamy is allowed in its fullest extent, and without any inconvenience resulting from the practice, as it is confined nearly to the chiefs. The circumstances of the common people will rarely allow them the indulgence of more than one wife, as women are not to be obtained without purchase. The females being considered as the property of their parents, are invariably disposed of by sale. The common price of a wife is an ox, or a couple of cows. Love with them is a very confined passion, taking but little hold on the mind. When an offer is made for the purchase of a daughter, she feels little inclination to refuse; she considers herself as an article in the market, and is neither surprised, nor unhappy, nor interested, on being told that she is about to be disposed of. There is no previous courtship, no exchange of fine sentiments, no nice feelings, nor little kind attentions, which catch the affections and attach the heart. [[106]]
THE PEOPLE OF SNEUWBERG, GRAAFF REGNET, "The only grievance of which I ever heard them complain," says Mr. Barrow, "and which appears to be a real inconvenience to all who inhabit the remote parts of the colony, is a ridiculous and absurd law respecting marriage: and as it seems to have no foundation in reason, and little in policy, except, indeed, like the marriage-acts in other countries, it be intended as a check to population, it ought to be repealed. By this law, the parties are both obliged to be present at the Cape, in order to answer certain interrogatories, and pass the forms of office there, the chief intention of which seems to be that of preventing improper marriages from being contracted; as if the commissaries appointed to this office, at the distance of five or six hundred miles, should be better acquainted with the connexions and other circumstances regarding the parties; than the landrost, the clergyman, and the members of the council residing upon the spot. The expense of the journey to the young couple is greater than they can frequently well afford. For decency's sake they must set out in two wagons, though in the course of a month's journey across a desert country, it is said they generally make one serve the purpose; the consequence of which is, that nine times out of ten the consummation of the marriage precedes the ceremony. This naturally produces another bad effect. The poor girl, after the familiarities of a long journey, lies entirely at the mercy of the man, who, having satisfied his curiosity or his passion, sometimes deserts her before their arrival at the altar; and it has sometimes happened, that the lady has repented of her choice in the course of the journey, and driven home again in her own wagon. Though, in our own country, a trip to Scotland be sometimes taken, when obstacles at a nearer distance could not safely be surmounted, yet it would be considered as a very ridiculous, as well as vexatious law, that should oblige the parties intending to marry, to proceed from the Laud's End to London to carry their purpose into execution. The inhabitants of Graaff Regnet must travel twice that distance, in order to be married." [[107]]
NEGRO NATIONS. "It is a practice equally, nay, perhaps still more common among the negroes than among the Americans, to offer their wives and daughters to Europeans." [[108]] "Parents sell their daughters not only to lovers, but to suiters of any kind, without doubting or even asking their consent. The negroes in general, receive for their daughters a few bottles of brandy, and at the furthest, a few articles of wearing apparel; and when these prices are paid, the fathers conduct their willing children to the huts of the purchasers." [[109]] "A negro may love his wife with all the affection that is possible for a negro to possess, but he never permits her to eat with him, because he would imagine himself contaminated, or his dignity lessened, by such a condescension; and at this degrading distance, the very negro-slaves in the West Indies keep their wives, though it might be presumed that the hardships of their common lot would have tended to unite them in the closest manner." [[110]] "The poorest and meanest negro, even though he be a slave, is generally waited upon by his wife as by a subordinate being, on her knees. On their knees the negro women are obliged to present to their husbands tobacco and drink; on their knees they salute them when they return from hunting, or any other expedition; lastly, on their knees, they drive away the flies from their lords and masters while they sleep." [[111]]
GAGERS. Various writers of credit and veracity report, that in the southern portion of Africa, many princes and chieftains keep great numbers of young girls, not merely to gratify their passions, but to satiate their tigerlike appetite for human flesh. In order to convince ourselves, that the fate of the black women of Africa is not less severe than the condition of the brown females of the American continent, it is sufficient to state, that among the negro-women, to whom Cavazzi administered baptism, some acknowledged with tears that they had killed five, others seven, and others again ten children, with their own hands. Notwithstanding the despotic authority of the legislatrix of the Gagers, she was unable, even by the strictest prohibition, to restrain her warriors from regaling themselves with the flesh of women. Rich and powerful chieftains continued to keep whole flocks of young girls, as they would of lambs, calves, or any other animals, and had some of them daily slaughtered for the table; for the Gagers prefer human flesh to every other species of animal food, and among the different classes of human kind, they hold that of young females in particular estimation. [[112]]
III. PATRIARCHAL TIMES, AND THE PERIOD OF THE JEWISH THEOCRACY, require a brief examination, as a necessary means of elucidating the general subject.
Having already, in the preceding inquiries, ascended to an early date, and traced the condition of women through a long series of historic record to the present age, it may seem an imperfection in the plan to conduct the reader back to a still more remote antiquity than has hitherto been noticed; but this arrangement will be allowed, perhaps, to be founded in propriety, upon observing that the design was first to exhibit a complete series of illustrations, derived from a view of the circumstances of mankind as destitute of the light of revelation, and then to compare the condition of the female sex under the influence of a precursory and imperfect system of the true religion, with their actual state, or with the privileges secured to them by the nobler manifestations of CHRISTIANITY. By this mode of conducting the argument we trace the great epochs in the history of female melioration: the glory of woman appears at first eclipsed, as behind a dark cloud, which the passions of a degenerate race had interposed to hide and debase her: she then emerges, though partially, to view, through the mists and obscurities of a temporary dispensation, adapting itself to the circumstances of mankind as they then existed, but unsuited to what they were destined to become--till at length, "fair as the moon," ascending to the noon of her glory, and tinging with the mildness of her beam every earthly object, woman attains her undisputed eminence, and diffuses her benignant influence in society.
Were we to attach entire credit to the pleasing descriptions of the muses, we must admit, that the earliest ages of the world deserved the epithet of "golden" as exhibiting man devoid of those artificial wants which refinement and luxury have superinduced, and divested of those violent prejudices, that selfishness and that arrogance, which have filled the cup of human wo to the brim: we should see him inhabiting a tent of the simplest construction, furnishing himself with necessary subsistence with his own hands, sharing with his companion the services of domestic life, breathing the very soul of hospitality, and adorned with the most attractive manners: we should even see princes and princesses devoting themselves to what we are accustomed to denominate the menial offices both of husbandry and house-keeping, but without any sense of degradation in the one sex, or any tyrannical assumption in the other.
The authority of the sacred writings also upon this point is express and decisive. The most distinguished of the human race were, in patriarchal times, devoted to rural occupations and to plain habits; and it is not easy, nor is it altogether desirable, to divest oneself of those feelings of enchantment which the view of such scenes and manners naturally inspires. Who can remain unaffected at the recital of the story of an Abraham, running to the herd and fetching a young and tender calf to refresh his angelic visiters; or at the various memorable instances of simplicity that occur in the stories of Isaac, Jacob, and their contemporaries?