“I have beaten thirty to-day,” she would say with a sigh, as we sat down to dinner, or if we were going to the Commissioner's there was generally one in prison who had to be released before we could go. Sometimes, if she were specially bad, a girl was kept in prison all day and all night, in addition to her beating. Once in the compound opposite I saw a little stark-naked girl about thirteen stand screaming apparently without any cause. The Sisters stood it for about half an hour, then I saw them stealing across the road; they entered the compound, and promptly captured the small sinner. Her aunt, who was the owner of the compound, had apparently given her up as hopeless, and she looked on with interest. I had thought the captive's lungs must have given out long before, but as they crossed the road she put on a fresh spurt, and she yelled still more heartrendingly when she was beaten. But the next day she came trippingly along the verandah, confident, and happy, and apparently all the better for the correction she had received the day before. I do not know what her sin was. Probably she had not obeyed her aunt when she told her to rub the beads. Beads are bought in strings in Germany or England, and then every bead has to be rubbed smooth with water on a stone. It must be a dull job, but the women and children are largely occupied in doing it; the stones you see in every compound are worn hollow, and the palms of the woman's hands are worn quite hard. But it is part of a woman's education and she must do it just as a man must do the weaving.
The day came at last when I had to go, and I sat on the beach, surrounded by my goods and chattels, waiting for the surf boat that was to take me to the ship. Grant was bidding regretful farewells to the many friends he had made, and I was bidding my kind Sisters good-bye. Then I was hustled into a boat in a man's arms, hastily we dashed through the surf, and presently I was on board the Bathurst bound for Addah at the mouth of the Volta River.
