The Mandingoes have usually two meals a-day; they breakfast at eleven o’clock, take supper at seven in the evening; in the morning they sometimes eat a little rice porridge, which they call baya. The poor have but one repast a-day, but the greater part of them visit their neighbours to partake of their meals.
The negroes are extremely fond of social meetings. In the fine season, after evening prayer, they assemble with the whole neighbourhood, to take supper together. Each wife brings her husband’s supper on her head. Some have tau, others yams and rice; the sauce is usually separate, in a little plate called birit. These parties are always very merry. These worthy Musulmans vituperate those whom they call infidels, laugh heartily, and amuse themselves at the expense of absent friends. The women are not admitted to these meetings; they eat in their huts with their children, but never with their husbands. At the age of ten the male children take their meals with the father. When the repast is finished, the women come and collect their household utensils.
A custom which I observed to prevail generally among the negroes appeared to me very singular. At the end of every meal they thank each other reciprocally, and afterwards run through the village, repeating their thanks to every one they meet, which is equivalent to saying that they have dined or supped. It is easy to judge of the quality of the repast of which they have partaken, according to the expression of greater or less satisfaction with which the word signifying thanks is pronounced. Some of them came to the door of my hut also to ejaculate their thanks.
The Bambaras, who are all pagans, marry as many wives as they are able to maintain; but the Mandingoes have never more than four: they do not, however, marry them all at once, but at different periods, sometimes after intervals of three or four years. Every new wife occasions a considerable expense, which they cannot defray, unless success in trade has enabled them to accumulate some profits. They must purchase slaves to present to the parents of their mistress; for otherwise no wife is to be had. This kind of dowry varies in amount, according to circumstances. If the female be of a good family, if she be handsome, or if her possession of superior qualities be generally acknowledged, the parents require three or four slaves, or the value of that number in merchandise. These unfortunate beings become henceforth the property of the mother. When the girl to be married is neither of a distinguished family nor handsome, then only two slaves are given. Throughout the whole of this country I met with no instance of a young woman living in a state of celibacy; pretty, or plain, they all get married. These wives are, however, only so many servants, whom the men secure to themselves, and of whose running away they have no reason to be afraid. The bridegroom must deliver his slaves before he obtains possession of his bride, to whom he also makes some little presents, besides sending her every day large calabashes full of rice. The two months prior to the nuptials form a holiday time for the bride, and the mother invites the neighbours to take part in the merrimaking. These customs undergo some modification in each country: at Cambaya, for example, if the bridegroom gives three slaves, two are for the mother-in-law, and the third follows the bride to the house of her husband. At Timé, and at Sambatikila, the relations of the bride receive every thing. When the bridegroom has gone through every formality, and made all the requisite presents, if the betrothed, or any of her relations, should after all refuse to conclude the marriage, they are obliged to indemnify him for all the expenses he has incurred; on the contrary, if the objection be made by the man, whether from jealousy or any other cause, he loses all he has given. When, however, a discussion arises between the bridegroom and the family of the bride, and the match is in consequence broken off, every thing that the relations have received must be returned. Among a selfish and avaricious people, it is a necessary effect of these rigid regulations, that the first engagements are seldom dissolved. In the result the women are always the victims; for the men, looking upon the other sex as an inferior order of beings, are always absolute masters in the domestic circle. Quarrels are, however, frequent, for the husbands are extremely rigorous, and the wives are not very tractable. These unfortunate women may indeed be considered on a level with the slaves as to the severe labours imposed upon them. They go to distant places for wood and water; their husbands make them sow, weed the cultivated fields, and gather in the harvest. When they travel with a caravan, they carry burthens on their heads, while the husbands proceed at their ease on horseback. The poor women are often severely reproved for the slightest mistake they commit; they then cry, storm, and run about the village, complaining loudly of the injustice of their husbands; little attention is however paid to them, for the husbands, in their own opinion, are never in the wrong, and the dispute ends by the wife receiving a sound drubbing; she then weeps and screams, until the elders of the village come to her relief and restore peace for a time to the hut. I observed, that after a beating they become very gentle. It is certain that they are not vindictive; and indeed they would gain nothing by being so. On the third or fourth day after the quarrel they are as cheerful as ever. The wife dare not lift a hand against her husband, even in her own defence; and she never ventures to indulge in the least joke upon him. The husband always speaks in the tone of a master: in fact, his wives are merely servants.
I asked Baba why he did not sometimes make merry with his wives: he replied, that if he did he should not be able to manage them, for they would laugh at him when he ordered them to do any thing. Their marriages are celebrated by feasting and dancing, all the population of the village participating in the rejoicings; the consumption of eatables is great, and the husband pays all the expense: those who cannot attend have their suppers sent to them in calabashes; others who are absent have their share kept for them till they return home.
When the young bride repairs to her husband’s village, a fresh entertainment is prepared for her reception. Gaiety always prevails on these occasions. No religious ceremony unites the husband and wife; nevertheless, the link by which they are bound cannot be broken; for the dowry which the husband has given is a solemn act, which cannot be undone. The wife is not the less unfortunate: let her husband beat her as much as he pleases, she cannot obtain a separation, except by restitution; but that is with her impossible, since she possesses nothing, and her parents, if they should be able, would not restore what they have received.
With respect to physical suffering the fortitude displayed by the women is remarkable. While pregnant they continue to perform the severest labours until the very last moment of their time. They give birth to children without uttering a complaint, and one would almost believe that they are delivered without pain, for on the following day they resume their usual occupations. I observed that the child is born white, with only a shade of yellow, and that it grows gradually darker until the tenth day, when it is quite black. The new-born infant is bathed in a calabash of tepid water, and not in the river as several travellers have asserted. Adults seldom bathe in cold water; still less do children. The mothers watch over their infants with great tenderness, seldom trusting them to the care of others. They always suckle them themselves, and they carry them every where on their backs, fastened up in their pagne, as is the custom in almost all the negro countries. In all the parts of Africa which I have visited, boys and girls go about naked until the age of puberty.
The male Mandingoes are circumcised between the age of fifteen and twenty. The excision which females should undergo when they are marriageable is often delayed until they are promised in marriage. I even saw a married woman, who, after having a child, submitted to this operation. It is always performed by women, and on several patients at once, who are thereby rendered for some time unable to work. In this state they are taken care of by their mothers, who bathe the wound several times a day with an indigenous caustic, with the use of which they are acquainted. Their female neighbours go in quest of the wood and water of which they stand in need.
The day of circumcision is always a rejoicing day. On the following day, the girls who have undergone the operation promenade the village accompanied by an old woman. They stop at every door to solicit donations, the old women speaking for them. The young women never go out without a reed which they carry in the left hand. They also wear on this occasion a man’s cap of a large size, the front of which is supported by a piece of flexible wood put inside to make it stand up. With this head-dress these girls look like giantesses. Instead of a reed, I have seen some of them carrying an iron arrow, as an emblem of the circumcision. The persons whose hospitality is appealed to on the part of the newly circumcised, hasten to prepare, each in his turn, victuals sufficient for a great dinner or supper, into which they put salt, and which is distributed among the patients. All their friends and neighbours follow this example if they please; but those who are betrothed must not fail, and they continue to send dinners to the circumcised until their recovery, which in general is not completed until six weeks after the operation. Their fathers, who never live in the same hut, also send them more provisions than usual. Large platefuls of rice or tau are distributed by the mothers among the neighbours and relations. On these occasions I was never forgotten. The good negress, my landlady, always took care that I should have my share.
The fathers and mothers are extremely fond of their children, and they, in their turn, have a great veneration for their parents. Indeed, respect and obedience to the old is a rule rigorously observed. In all these countries I never saw a mendicant. The aged who are unable to support themselves are always maintained and treated with respect by their children. In this part of the interior I saw a blind man, but he did not beg, as is the custom for such persons in other negro countries. Many travellers have asserted that the children retain a stronger attachment to their mother than to their father; but for my part, though I had an opportunity of studying their character for some time, I cannot say that I observed this difference in their affection. When they have any business to transact they follow in preference the advice of their father, and they would feel extreme reluctance to disobey him; for the father is always the supreme head of the family. I shall cite, by way of example, Arafan-Abdalahi, a Mandingo of Kankan, a man of forty or forty-five, who relinquished the pleasure, and even the religious duty, of performing a pilgrimage to Mecca, that he might not displease his aged father whose consent he could not obtain. I did not observe that the Mandingoes quarrel often. It is dangerous to insult them and still more to offend their parents. They are however vindictive, inquisitive, envious, liars, importunate, selfish, avaricious, ignorant and superstitious. They are not strictly speaking thieves since they do not steal from each other; but their probity with respect to others is very equivocal and in particular towards strangers, who would be very imprudent to shew them any thing that might tempt their cupidity, such as scissors, knives, glass trinkets, gun-powder, paper, &c. articles which are exceedingly rare and valuable in those countries. The Mandingoes do not trust any thing, even in the hands of their relations, without first counting or measuring it several times. In general they are distrustful and far from scrupulous about the means of obtaining what pleases them. During my stay at Timé, I heard that a Bambara belonging to a distant village had killed one of his comrades, which occasioned much consternation in the neighbourhood, but I was never able to learn whether the murderer suffered any punishment for the offence. I can, however, affirm that such crimes are rare among the Bambaras, and never committed by the Mandingoes. These latter despise the poor Bambaras, whom they look upon as infidels, but I had good reason to think that they are themselves avaricious and inhospitable, and I firmly believe, that I should have perished during my illness, if I had not possessed wherewithal to pay for my food; and for my personal security I was indebted to my disguise. They all manifested the most decided aversion to the name of christian; for they entertain the very worst idea of us. However, they are not altogether devoid of sensibility: they pay much attention to their countrymen in sickness, and even to those of their own religion. It must be remembered that I was to them an indifferent being, and yet, some of them evinced sincere compassion for me. I however, experienced more hospitality and less annoyance among the Foulahs than from the Mandingoes.