Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-07-01

by the study of Natural HISTORY. Froli LILO o
normous whale which requires an ocean 10
swim in. to those minute and myriad forms
which have ample room for all their evolutions
in a single drop of its waters; from the lolty
tree which has stood for centuries an ornament
in the midst of the landscape, to the lowly nower
which attracts us by its beauty and its fragrance
all form collection of objects whose frame
work is constructed in the most admirable man.
ner. and whose vital manifestations are, In the
highest degree, instructive and interesting.
Female Supremacy in Central Africa.
During DR.. Livingston's descent along the
river Zambese he came chiefly in contact with
the Bolonda negroes. On gaining more lntl'
mate acquaintance with their social state, our
traveller was specially struck with one prevail
ing popularity position, and even power
of the women. As rule, 1t has Deen IounG n u
that heathenism deprives women OF her rlgnuul
status in society, and dooms her to druogery
and degration. He was not prepared, therefore,
to find amongst this heather and very supersti-
tous people the relative position OF man ana
woman reversed. That the woman should SIT
in the councils of the nation; that young man
on entering the matrimonial state should De
compelled to remove from his own village to
that of his wife and in forming this relation he
should bind himself to provide her mother with
6rewood as long as the old lady lived; that the
wife alone could divorce the husband, and that,
in the event of their separation, the children be-
come the property of their mother; and that
the lord of creation should be unable to enter
into the most ordinary contract, or to perform
the SIMPLEST service for another, without the
sanction of '.the lady superior"-were certainly
indications of female supremacy, which it was
passing strange to find Gt is to be hoped for the
first time and the last in the history of discov-
eries) among the citizens of Central Africa
But vet it must be allowed that 'the reciproci-
ty was" not ''only on one side;" for in return
for the husbands Difference, his wives are ex-
pected to provide him with food. This, posi-
bly may account for the fact which our friend
states. that the ladies never lack husband, and
that an old maid is not to be found from the
Cape to the Equator.
Occasionally, however, there will come a
hitch in their domestic arrangements; and while
our traveller supplies no instance of rebellion Oh
the part of the husbands, he shows that conspi-
racy was not unusual among wives Ii at any
time the former is so unfortunate as to offend
the ladies, they resolve to wound him IN the
most tender part-the stomach. Returning
home therefore, at the usual hour, he calls up
on his first wife and asks for dinner, but she
sends him to q second ''whom he loves better; p
and she again to third until he has run the
gauntlet through them all, with the same result.
Having nothing left but to avenge himself ofthe
wrong, faint and hungry, he climbs tree in
some populous part of his village, and proelaims
aloud, with pteous intonations, "Listen, ., lis
ten; thought had married women but they
are only witches! / am q bachelor! l have
not single wife Is that right for gentle
man like me9" But the ladies are not always
satisfied with showing their displeasure in the
negative form, will sometimes even dare to en-
force their authority over their husbands with
cuffs and blows. This, ,however,s carrying mat
ters little too far, and the public sentiment be-
ing against such conduct the poor sufferer gets
more substantial revenge; for the authorities of
the village then interfere, and his tyranical wife
is sentenced for the assault to carry him upon
her back from the Gotta, an enclosed court OF
the chiefs premises, to his own house, taunted,
as she goes along with the sneers and gibes OF
men on the one hand; but alas on the other,
cheered by the sympathy and by such exhorta-
tions as 'Serves him right" "Give it to him o.
gain" from members of her own gentle SEX
British Banner.