Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-02-13
THE FAT WOMEN OF AFRICA.
A Few Extracts from Captain Speke's Jour
nal of His Visit 10 the Source Of the Nile.

1 Inc UlSJOfY Vi btlC utSIoftlg va ehS oOWSN
of the Nile, by Captain John Hanning Spoke,
has Just been published in England The fol-
lowing are few extracts from the same
T AN AFRICAN BEAUTY.
| In the afternoon, as heard from Musa that
the wives of the King and princes were fat
tened to such an extent that they could not
stand upright, paid my respects to Wazezem,
the Kings eldest brother-who; having been
born before his father assembled his throne,
did not come in the line of succession-with
the hope of being able to see for myself the
truth of the story. There was no mistake
about. On entering the hut, found the old
| man and his chief wife sitting side by side, on
"a bench of earth strewed with grass, and par
titioned like stalls for sleeping apartments,
| whilst in front of them were placed numerous
wooden pots of milk, and hanging from the
| poles that supported the beehive-shaped hut,
| a large collection of bows six feet in length,
whilst below them were tied an even larger
collection of spears, intermixed with a good
ly assortment ofheavy headed assages. | was
| struck with no small surprise at the way he
1 received me, as well as with the extraordina-
ry dimensions, yet pleasing beauty, of the inn
moderately fat fair one, his wife. She could
not rise, and so large were her arms that, be-
| tween the joints the flesh hung down like large
1 lOOSe-sluIleu 1Hcu HI bhOii
children, all models of the Abyssinian type OF
beauty, and as polite in their manners as
thoroughbred gentlemen. They had heard OF
my picture books from the King, and all wish
ed to see them; which they no sooner did, to
! their infinite delight, especially when they
recognized any of the animals, then the sub
ject was turned by my inquiring what they
did with SO many milkpots. This was easily
explained by Wazezem himself, who, point
ing to his wife, said: That is all the product
of those pots; from early youth upward we
keep those pots to their mouths, as it is the
fashion at court to have very fat wives"
| BAsHFUL VIRGIN.
After long and amusing conversation
with Rumanika in the morning, called on
one of his sisters-in law, married to an elder
brother who was born before Dagara ascend
ed to the throne. She was another of those
wonders of obesity, unable to stand except
ing on all tours. was DESTROYS to obtain a
good view of her, and actually to measure
her, and induced her to give me facilities fol-
doing so, by offering in return to show her a
bit of my naked legs and arms. The bait
took as | wished it, and, after getting her to
sidle and wriggle into the middle of the hut
l did as promised, and then took her dimen-
sions as noted: Round the arm one foot
eleven inches; chest, four feet four inches
thigh, two feet seven inches calf, one foot
seven inches; height, five feet eight inches
All of these are exact except the height, and
| believe / could have got this more accurate.
ly if could have her laid on the floor. Not
knowing what difficulties L should have to
contend with in such piece of engineering
l ,ried to get her height by raising her up
This, after infinite exertiOns on the part of us
4 Intl l,.aI cha 1nt.v
again, fainting, for her blood had rushed into
her head. Meanwhile the daughter, lass OF
sixteen, sat stark-naked before us, sucking al
milk-pot, on which the father kept her al
work by holding a rod in his hand, for as fat
tening is the first duty of fashionable female
life, it must be duly enforced by the rod, il
necessary. l got up bit of Irritation with
missy, and induced her to rise and shake
hands with me. Her features were lovely
but her body was as round as ball.
HOW CAPT. sPEKE GOT SOME WIVES.
The company now became iovial, when the
Queen improved it by making a significant
gesture, and with roars of laughter asking mt
; if would like to be her son-in-law, for she
had some beautiful daughters, either of the
Wahuma or Waganda breed. Rather stag
gered at first by this awful proposal, consul
| JCu DOluDtl NldI SllOulu uO WIFI OHc ii
got her. He, looking more to number on,
than my convenience, said: BY all means
accept the offer, for if you don't like her, VIZ
should, and it would be good means of get
ting her out of this land of death, for al
black people love Zanzibar" The rest nee(
not be told; as matter of course had t.
appear very much gratifed, and as the bow
went round all became uproarious. | mus
wait day or two, however, that proper sc
lection might be made and when the mar
riage came off, l was to chain the fair ont
two or three days, until she became used t.
me, else, from mere fright, she might rul
away.
HIS NEXT VISIT TO THE QUEEN.
The Queen stood laughing till the Wahum
} girls she had promised me, one of twelve ant
the other a little older, were brought in anC
made to squat in front of us. The elder, wht
was in the prime of youth and beauty, yer.
large of limb, dark in color, cried considera
bly,, whilst the younger one, though very fai
; had a snubby nose and averted lips, ant
: laughed as if she thought the change in he
destiny very good fun. had now to make
: my selection, and took the smaller one, prom
, Using her to bombay, as soon as we arrived
on the coast, where, he said, she would b,
considered a Hubshi or Abyssinian. But wheI
| the hueen saw WnaJ nau uOne, Sne gave mt
the other as well, saying the little one wa
: too young to go alone, and, if separated, she
would take fright and run away. Then, will
gracious bow, walked off with my two fine
specimens of natural history, though would
rather have had princes, that might hav,
taken them home to be instructed in Eng
land; but the Queen, as soon as we had clear
ed the palace, sent word to say she must have
another parting look at her son with hi
wives. Still laughing she said "That will
do you look beautiful now go away home !;
and off we trotted, the elder sobbing bitterly
the younger laughing As soon as we reach
ed home, my first inquiries was concerning
their histories, of which they appeared tt
know but very little. The elder, whom
named Meri, (plantains) was obtained b.
, Sunna, the late King, as wife, from Nkole
and though she was mere Kahala, or girl
when the old King died, he was so attached
to her that he gave her twenty cows, in orde
that she might fatten upon milk, after he
native fashion; but ON Sunnas death, wheI
| the establishment of women was divided, Mer
fell to N'yamasore's 1.-THE Queen's) lot. TIL,
lesser one, who still retained the name o
] Kahala, says she was seized in the UnyOro b,
the Waganda, who took her to NyamasOre
, but what became of her father and mothe
she could not say. 1t was now dinner time
, and as the usual sweet potatoes and goat
flesh was put upon my box table, asked
them to dine with me, and we became grea
: friends, for they were assured they woul,
!, finally get wood houses and gardens at Ian
, zibar; but nothing would induce either o