Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-04-08

( of tongues. Not few of these races
use sounds made by clicking" or
"chirping" the sounds we make with
the tongue against the palate when
we call dog or a horse.
To the hunter the valley of the Con-
go presents extraordinary attractions.
From its mouth to its source it s a
grand hunting field where such mighty
game as the rhinoceros, the hippopota-
mus and those great felines, the Loop
ard, lion. etc., can be found, and in tho
home, though he has never been do
mesticated like his Asiatic brother, and
is hunted for histusks only.
The condition of womankind among
the savages of the Congo and adjoining
territory is shocking in the extreme.
Generally she is classed as a domestic
animal merely, and to murder his wife
is not considered a crime by Mu-
kumbi. a chief of that tribe, n CONVEX
marked: Il killed five of my wives dur
ing the night" A Mabunga sent his
wife to collect firewood. She sank up
to her shoulders in marsh. and. her
screams attracting his attention, he
threw her a stick with which to defend
herself against the hyenas and other
wild beasts, and left her till morning,
when no trace of the wretched woman
was to be seen! ....
Writing from the court of King
Mtesa. Capt. Spoke, the, famous Eng
lish traveller, said: mo day has passed
! without my witnessing the execution of
at least one, and sometimes two or
three. of the unhappy women who COM
pose the kings harem. A cord round
their wrists, they are dragged to the
slaughter, their eyes streaming with
tears, and venting their misery in heart
rending cries of Hal Minange! K'bak-
ka Hal n'yavio!' (Oh, my lord, my
king! Oh, my mother, my mother!)
| Not hand is lifted to save them, al
| though here and there a remark upon
the beauty of some young victim passes
current In a low voice among t he crowd
Fr. Hautecoeur, missionary, report
| ed that recently child was born to one
of the slave women in the village where
his mission is located. Regularly every
day, i'll defiance of any consideration
she might have claimed for her child's
sake, the wretched woman was cruelty
| beaten, so that she would spend the
greater part of her time proving
emong the bushes round the village tor
! fear of the ill-treatment which she
knew awaited her temperance. One
day." he says, Il heard the baby was
dead, and | learned little later from
the other natives that the poor little
things death was entirely caused by
the brutality of its own father, who
would beat his wife without any re-
gard for the child which she carried on
her back. according to the custom of
the country"
And If this is the fate of African
| women in their own homes under ia
! vorable circumstances the reader can
imagine that it must be unspeakably
/ worse when capture and exile are added
TO their sufferings. The conqueror,
| generally some Mohammedan monster
in human form, protiting by the fire.
Guent battles between rival tribes, Sc
cures hundred or more of the prison
! ers. These miserable wretches, bound
together, weighed down beneath heavy
burdens of IVORY, or precious gums. are
driven for weeks and months across the
! desert to an unknown land, there to be
again sold into abject slavery.
The conquest and annexation of
western and equatorial Africa by Eu-
ropean nations will be the dawn of day
| for the women at least.
JAMES IRVING cRABBB.