On The Other Hand, As Some Counterbalance To This Depravity In Their
Nature, Allowing It To Be Such, It Is
Impossible for me to forget
the disinterested charity and tender solicitude with which many of
these poor heathens (from the
Sovereign of Sego to the poor women
who received me at different times into their cottages when I was
perishing of hunger) sympathised with me in my sufferings, relieved
my distresses, and contributed to my safety. This acknowledgment,
however, is perhaps more particularly due to the female part of the
nation. Among the men, as the reader must have seen, my reception,
though generally kind, was sometimes otherwise. It varied according
to the various tempers of those to whom I made application. The
hardness of avarice in some, and the blindness of bigotry in others,
had closed up the avenues to compassion; but I do not recollect a
single instance of hard-heartedness towards me in the women. In all
my wanderings and wretchedness I found them uniformly kind and
compassionate; and I can truly say, as my predecessor Mr. Ledyard
has eloquently said before me, "To a woman I never addressed myself
in the language of decency and friendship without receiving a decent
and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they
did not hesitate, like the men, to perform a generous action. In so
free and so kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if
I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry, I ate the
coarsest morsel with a double relish."
It is surely reasonable to suppose that the soft and amiable
sympathy of nature, which was thus spontaneously manifested towards
me in my distress, is displayed by these poor people, as occasion
requires, much more strongly towards persons of their own nation and
neighbourhood, and especially when the objects of their compassion
are endeared to them by the ties of consanguinity. Accordingly the
maternal affection (neither suppressed by the restraints nor
diverted by the solicitudes 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.
In the course of this celebration it frequently happens that some of
the young women get married. If a man takes a fancy to any one of
them, it is not considered as absolutely necessary that he should
make an overture to the girl herself. The first object is to agree
with the parents concerning the recompense to be given them for the
loss of the company and services of their daughter. The value of
two slaves is a common price, unless the girl is thought very
handsome, in which case the parents will raise their demand very
considerably.
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