Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1865-12-30
Life i'm Africa as seen Dy DR.. Livingstone
Condition of the Women. 81 az L

One of the most interesting subjects
TO the more interesting of the two
classes of DIR. Livingstones readers
will be that devoted TO the description
of African ladies. Taken generally, the
woman has no i'll time of it in the dis
tri,ts which the party trayersed, though,
if she and the village to which She
belongs, happen to be captured by the
slaye-dealers, she suffers, besides the
common misery, the little humili7
alton of being considered less valuable
than her llow-captive, man, by yard
of cotton cloth. -Four yards are given
for a male; the market price of the
woman is three. In their free homes
Dinah is mistress and master too. at
KilIimapiaro, the women are. the ira
ders. and will not admit man to make
sales in the market-place. In some
districts. where the husband is permits
ted to sell, he is only the good lady's
factor. We found one who, having sold
goat without referring to his wife, was
soundly rated by the business-like
woman who felt insulted. DO yon
think you are unmarried p asked the
lirate lady; ''why, what sort OF a man
are You ?" These strong minded women
are not Penelopes.
Husbands too long absent at the
chase, or in war, are sometimes too
hastily pronounced dead, and their dig
mites given to a successor. Polyga-
nous husbands, of course, are the most
respected. for they are the richest in
cattle and cannot only support the
greatest number of wives, but the
oldest and richest of such wOoers
obtain the youngest and prettiest girls
for wives. A smart honest lover with
one COW, has little chance of winning
the dusky young girl of his affections.
When be counts his heads of cattle by
thousands, he can procure more young
wives than he wants. These ladies do
not comprehend how England can be
happy and powerful, seeing that no
man can keep more than one wife, which
| To them has a mean aud shabby
| ASPECT Notwithstanding all this, there
are true hearts beneath some of the
dark and comely bosoms. We read of
one girl. who, rather than marry as her
chief would have her, and her inclina-
tions would not let her, slew herself, and
escaped what to her was degradation.
Added to this impassioned feeling there
is mixture of fine modesty and curl
osity among them. One can pardon
the curiosity which prompts them to
take shy glance at white man bath
ing, they would see If his body was as
disgustingly pale as his face. When
their own cOuntrymen go down TO the
river, the women avoid the place. There
is no such scornful defiance of decency
in Africa as may be seen in English
watering places. Some of the prevail
ling ideas of modesty are. no doubt,
conventional; but such has been the
case in the regions of the sublime and
beautiful. When Pehthesilea was dying,
the sole anxiety of that incarceration of
LONELINESS was that some dear friend
| would be good enough to see that her
feet were covered and that her bosom
was exposed.
In matters of fashion there is quite
as much fiutter in the savage as in the
civilized mind. The warm brown
beauties neither they nor the men are
full niggers in this hstrict) stand before
YOU. upright as finely chiseled columns,
| graceful as fawns; the water pots on
their heads become them more than
bonnets would. If il be time of day
when water pots are not to be borne,
the Young ladies are to be seen dressed
or decked, in the prevailing mode.
Select any one of them, and you will
find that of the beads about her hair,
her collars, gorgets and necklaces, her
armlets, wristlets, chains and clasps
about her legs and ankles, there is not
one that is not in the latest fashion. 1t is
true that with all this she has scarcely
got a farthing's worth of cloth about
ther. But then Clest Ia mode ma cherel
and ladies in the French revolution
wore little more, and that was semi
transparent.
1t is certain that the coy damsels flor
there is no absence of native modesty
among them) looked with considerable
disgust upon the men in bags, as the
l.trowsered whites were called. Even
the less ,fastidious danes quieted their
children by threatening TO fetch the
white men to bite them In their eyes
DIR. Livingstone, busy with the wet aud
dly bulb Thermometers, was an object
of pity, playing with toys like a little
boy; but when they beheld the travel
ers spreading butter. raw butter, On
their bread, their disgust was beyond
expression They only use butter after
melting it, to anoint their heads and
bodies, and they gazed as We should
/ gaze If d Muscovite @hobleman were to
seat himself in Belgrave Square, and
breakfast In the open air on what Mus
Icovite stomachs could once digest, tall
low candles.
~ Apart from feelings that arose from
contrasts of habits, there was univer-
sal appreciation among men and wo-
men of the objects of the expedition.
Alllonged for the time when the land
should be at rest from war and slavery.
The chiefs, who practiced both easily,
comprehended that the sowing and
selling of cotton, and honest trade
generally, would be more productive in
the end, than the capturing and selling
of men. The only obstacles in the way
are the Ajawas. who deal in human
| flesh, and the Portuguese, who encour-
age the traffic. These obstacles, it is
to be hoped, will soon cease, and the
Christian race, who were the first to
establish and are the last to protect this
traffic. will speedily abolish it, under
the honest inward conviction of exter-
nal compulsion. 80 =
The widow Of Prudhon has been
ioffered the sum of 25,00of. by the
Freemasons of the Paris lodges. This
subscription will probably be faised to
GO. 900 or 7O,000f. In accordance with