Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-10
THE WOMEN OF NIAm-EIAM.

The italian explorer Piaggia spent two
years and half among the Mann Nam
tribe of African savsges, being the first
white man to enter their country. His ac-
count of the women is curious and enter.
tanning. At first they were very shy
they would keep at distanc e, and, squat.
ting on the ground, cover their faces with
their hands and stare at him through their
fingers and when he attempted to draw
near, make their escape, shrieking and
laughing. To conquer their timidity he
threw them pieces of eolored glass, which
they would scramble for and seize like go
many chickens scratching for grain, with
every token of delight. On becoming more
familiar, and when he had made some Pre-.
gress with the language, they besieged him
with endless questions. His fair face was an
ever fresh cause Of wonder, and they were
eager to know whether he was ".white all
over" Piaggia, to crafty their curiosity,
showed them his arms and barred his breast.
when they would cry in concert: Like
our babies ! Like our babies !" It Is
curious fact that the children of the Mani
Nam tribe are born comparatively light,
and grow darker IS they grow older. They
were greatly concerned to know where he
had come from but when he tried to ex-
plain to them that ne was from another
country beyond the sea, they would not
listen to him. ''No, no p they would cry,
"you do not come from the earth, for you
are not black like the EARTH We are
black, and we come from the earth, but
you are white, and you come from the air. p"
The women of Nam. Nam, according to
Piaggia, are exceedingly ugly they wear
their hair short, and, but for their print
tive attire, conspicuou, only by its absence,
could scarcely be distinguished from the
men. Before marriage they go quite naked,
and though the married women adopt a
slight costume, it would seem to be rather
through coquetry than from an idea of
modesty. The young girls are strong,
muscular and well made, but very seldom
handsome or even good.looking. In their
opinions they are as liberal as most adj
vanced Europeans, and they live hermo-
niously, after the ideal OF Rousseau, accord
ing to the dictates OF nature. Entertained
by law and custom, there is no display
among them, or opportunity either for the
vices or the grand passions of civilization.
They accept Montaigne's definition Of
marriage-Ike the great essayist regard
ing it as partnership that should hold
good "only as long as both parties inter-
Gated deem it expedient." The knot is
tied without any religious ceremony the
marriage feast consists merely of social
| gathering, where the friends of the happy
couple assemble, and drink in rude vessels
sort of beer, the favorite beverage of the
country, in their honor. The women do
not sleep in their husbands butts; such a
custom would greatly offend all the notions
of propriety of Nam Nam. When a child
IS born great honor is paid to the mother !;
but when woman proves barren, or gives
birth to dead child, which very fire.
quently happens among them, the unfortu-
nate creature is driven away with con-
tempt, and a new wife provided without
! delay for the mortified husband.
These savage women, Piaggia informs us,
are as fond of finery as their more civilized
sisters. Their rage for the trinkets and
specimens of female attire that he brought
with him amounted almost to insanity.
One of them, who had secured bright
strip of cotton cloth, to wear over her
shoulders By way of scarf, gave herself
all the airs of grande dame, and was
the object of the utmost envy. One day
he presented white petticoat to the young
girl, who danced and shouted with delight,
getting entangled in her new garment as
a man would have done dressed in woman S
clothes. She ran off to make display
of herself among some relatives who lived
on the outskirts Of the tribe, and re-
turned after several days in great distress
because the skirt had grown soiled. PIag-
gla advised her to wash it in the stream by
which they were walking, greatly to her
indignation, for she imagined that it would
be dissolved by the water, like the white
paper on which he wrote, to which she
compared it. To prove the contrary he
pushed her 10, petticost and all, shriekipg
and lamenting bitterly; but when she
found that he had spoken the truth, and
that the garment remained intact, her sor.
row was changed TO Joy.
These feminine Niam-Niams proved al
NEST too much for Piaggia, thus solitary
in their midst. They soon got possession
of all the goods that he had brought, and
after this made levies upon his wardrobe,
scanty as it was. They seized his stock.
ings, tore off the sleeves of his shirts. the
brims of his hats and the lower part of his
trousers; whatever was not strictly indis'
pensable to his own use they seemed tc
imagine ought to belong to them.