But polygamy here has not rendered the women, as theoretically it should, a down-trodden moiety of society; on the contrary, their position is comparatively high.  The marriage connection is not “one of master and slave,” a link between freedom and serfdom; the “weaker vessel” does not suffer from collision with the pot de fer; generally the fair but frail ones appear to be, as amongst the Israelites generally, the better halves.  Despite the Okosunguu or cow-hide “peacemaker,” they have conquered a considerable latitude of conducting their own affairs.  When poor and slaveless and, naturally, when no longer young, they must work in the house and in the field, but this lot is not singular; in journeys they carry the load, yet it is rarely heavier than the weapons borne by the man.  On the other hand, after feeding their husbands, what remains out of the fruits of their labours is their own, wholly out of his reach—­a boon not always granted by civilization.  As in Unyamwezi, they guard their rights with a truly feminine touchiness and jealousy.  There is always, in the African mind, a preference for descent and inheritance through the mother, “the surer side,”—­an unmistakable sign, by the by, of barbarism.  The so-called royal races in the eight great despotisms of Pagan Africa—­Ashanti, Dahome, and Benin; Karagwah, Uganda, and Unyoro; the Mwata ya Nvo, and the Mwata Cazembe—­ allow the greatest liberty even to the king’s sisters; they are expected only to choose handsome lovers, that the race may maintain its physical superiority; and hence, doubtless, the stalwart forms and the good looks remarked by every traveller.  As a rule, the husband cannot sell his wife’s children whilst her brother may dispose of them as he pleases—­the vox populi exclaims, “What! is the man to go hungry when he can trade off his sister’s brats?”

The strong-minded of London and New York have not yet succeeded in thoroughly organizing and popularizing their clubs; the belles sauvages of the Gaboon have.  There is a secret order, called “Njembe,” a Rights of Woman Association, intended mainly to counterbalance the Nda of the lords of creation, which will presently be described.  Dropped a few years ago by the men, it was taken up by their wives, and it now numbers a host of initiated, limited only by heavy entrance fees.  This form of freemasonry deals largely in processions, whose preliminaries and proceedings are kept profoundly secret.  At certain times an old woman strikes a stick upon an “Orega” or crescent-shaped drum, hollowed out of a block of wood; hearing this signal, the worshipful sisterhood, bedaubed, by way of insignia, with red and white chalk or clay, follow her from the village to some remote nook in the jungle, where the lodge is tiled.  Sentinels are stationed around whilst business is transacted before a vestal fire, which must burn for a fortnight or three weeks, in the awe-compelling presence of a brass pipkin filled with herbs, and a basin, both zebra’d like the human limbs.  The Rev. William Walker was once detected playing “Peeping Tom” by sixty or seventy viragos, who attempted to exact a fine of forty dollars, and who would have handled him severely had he not managed to escape.  The French officers, never standing upon ceremony in such matters, have often insisted upon being present.