The history of the condition of women in various ages and nations

by Lydia Maria Child

When the marabouts have rubbed the corpse with oil and covered it with cloths, each person goes up and addresses it, as if still living. In a few minutes they go away, saying, “He is dead;” the lamentations are renewed, and continue till the next day, when the burial takes place. Major Denham speaks of hearing the Dugganah women singing funeral dirges all night long in honor of their husbands, who had fallen in battle. These dirges were prepared for the occasion, and were so solemn and plaintive, that they could not be listened to without the deepest sympathy.

The body is conveyed to the grave in straw mats. Women hired for the occasion follow it with loud shrieks, and the most extravagant demonstrations of sorrow. They return howling to the hut, where they pronounce an eulogium on the deceased. If they perform their parts well, they are complimented by relations, and are treated with palm wine, or other spirituous liquors. For eight days in succession these women go to the grave at sunrise and sunset, and renew their lamentations, saying, “Hadst thou not wives, and arms, and horses, and pipes, and tobacco? Wherefore then didst thou leave us?”

The relations and friends of the deceased remain in seclusion with his widow eight days, to console her grief.

The Abyssinian women wound their faces while they lament for the dead. In Congo, the relatives shave their heads, anoint their bodies, and rub them with dust, during the eight days of mourning. They consider it very indecorous for a widow to join in any festivity for the space of one year after her husband’s death.

In Dahomey and Ashantee, wives, and slaves of both sexes, often one hundred in number, are slaughtered at the death of the king, from the idea that he will need their attendance in another world; and every year, at least one human being and many animals are killed “to water the graves” of the royal family. The government of Yarriba is more mild and paternal; but it is the custom for a few of the king’s favorite wives, and some of his principal ministers, to take poison, which is presented to them in parrots’ eggs, in order that they may go to serve his majesty in the world of spirits.

Fragrant flowers and a quantity of gold are sometimes buried with people of rank, for their use in another world. On the death of a young girl, the body is washed, anointed with palm oil, decorated in all her finery, and laid upon a bed; her companions join in a dance around her; and when this ceremony is concluded, she is buried in her best clothes. The graves are covered with little mounds of straw, on which a lance, bow, and arrow are placed for the men, and a mortar and pestle for a woman. The solemnities always conclude with a feast, at which the guiriots dance, while all join in singing the praises of the deceased.

The Africans, like the Asiatics, do not use knives or forks. All eat from a wooden bowl, which is placed on a mat, or low stool, in the middle of the hut. The women seldom eat until the men have done. After the repast a woman brings a calabash of water, and offers it to each of the guests, for the purpose of washing his hands and mouth. In Tesee the women are not allowed to eat eggs, though the men eat them without scruple. It is not known in what the custom originated, but nothing will affront a woman of that country so much as to offer her an egg.

In Congo, people of rank are often carried by slaves in a sort of hammock swung upon poles, which is frequently protected from the sun by an awning thrown over it. Women in all parts of Africa are often seen riding on asses or oxen. They guide the latter by means of a string passed through a ring in the nose; and they sometimes manage to make these quiet beasts curvet and caper.

Apes, baboons, and monkeys, are exceedingly numerous in Africa. A woman of the country of Galam, who was carrying some milk and millet to sell in a neighboring village, was attacked by a troop of apes from three to four feet high. They threw stones at her, and holding her fast, beat her with sticks, until she dropped the vessel she was carrying. She returned home much bruised, and the men formed a hunting party, which killed ten of the savage animals, and wounded several others; not however without getting sundry bites and bruises during the encounter.

The Hottentot race seem to be distinct from all other people, and surpassing all others, even the Calmucks, in ugliness. The eyes are long, narrow, and distant from each other; the eyelids do not form an angle at the extremity near the nose, but are formed in a manner very similar to the Chinese; their cheek bones are very high and prominent, and form nearly a triangle with the narrow pointed chin; the complexion is yellowish brown, like an autumn leaf; the hair grows in small tufts at certain distances from each other; when kept short, the head looks like a hard shoe-brush, but when suffered to grow, it hangs in the neck in a sort of hard twisted fringe. An old Hottentot woman is said to be a most uncouth and laughable figure; some parts of the body being very lank, and others jutting out in huge protuberances of loose flesh. The letter S gives the best idea of the curvature of their forms. The habit of throwing the breast over the shoulder, in order to enable infants to nurse while swinging at their backs, contributes not a little to increase their deformity. Yet some of the women, when very young, are said to be perfect models of beauty in the female form. Every joint and limb is well turned and proportioned, and the hands and feet are remarkably small and delicate, though they never wear shoes, or sandals. Their charms, however, endure but a very short time. They are old at thirty; and long before that time, their shape assumes those strange and disgusting disproportions, for which it seems difficult to account.