of civilised life) is everywhere conspicuous among them, and creates a correspondent return of tenderness in the child.  An illustration of this has been already given.  “Strike me,” said my attendant, “but do not curse my mother.”  The same sentiment I found universally to prevail, and observed in all parts of Africa that the greatest affront which could be offered to a negro was to reflect on her who gave him birth.

It is not strange that this sense of filial duty and affection among the negroes should be less ardent towards the father than the mother.  The system of polygamy, while it weakens the father’s attachment by dividing it among the children of different wives, concentrates all the mother’s jealous tenderness to one point—­the protection of her own offspring.  I perceived with great satisfaction, too, that the maternal solicitude extended, not only to the growth and security of the person, but also, in a certain degree, to the improvement of the mind of the infant; for one of the first lessons in which the Mandingo women instruct their children is the practice of truth.  The reader will probably recollect the case of the unhappy mother whose son was murdered by the Moorish banditti at Funingkedy.  Her only consolation in her uttermost distress was the reflection that the poor boy, in the course of his blameless life, had never told A lie.  Such testimony from a fond mother on such an occasion must have operated powerfully on the youthful part of the surrounding spectators.  It was at once a tribute of praise to the deceased and a lesson to the living.

The negro women suckle their children until they are able to walk of themselves.  Three years’ nursing is not uncommon, and during this period the husband devotes his whole attention to his other wives.  To this practice it is owing, I presume, that the family of each wife is seldom very numerous.  Few women have more than five or six children.  As soon as an infant is able to walk it is permitted to run about with great freedom.  The mother is not over solicitous to preserve it from slight falls and other trifling accidents.  A little practice soon enables a child to take care of itself, and experience acts the part of a nurse.  As they advance in life the girls are taught to spin cotton and to beat corn, and are instructed in other domestic duties; and the boys are employed in the labours of the field.  Both sexes, whether bushreens or kafirs, on attaining the age of puberty, are circumcised.  This painful operation is not considered by the kafirs so much in the light of a religious ceremony as a matter of convenience and utility.  They have, indeed, a superstitious notion that it contributes to render the marriage state prolific.  The operation is performed upon several young people at the same time, all of whom are exempted from every sort of labour for two months afterwards.  During this period they form a society called solimana.  They visit the towns and villages in the neighbourhood, where they dance and sing, and are well treated by the inhabitants.  I had frequently, in the course of my journey, observed parties of this description, but they were all males.  I had, however, an opportunity of seeing a female solimana at Kamalia.