lowing marriage ceremonies. When a father finds his son able to get his own living, he looks out for a wife for him, unless the son may have provided himself. When they have agreed, the father communicates it to the parents of the young woman, who seldom dissent. A priest is then sent for, who, after administering the fetish, (a name of the god they worship) or oaths, in which the woman swears to love and be faithful to her husband, he also swears to love her, but omits the point of fidelity. When this ceremony is over, the parents make mutual presents, and the company spend the day in mirth and merriment. 'In the evening, the husband sends his wife home, attended by her relations and friends, who stay a whole week with her, when they leave her, and she enters upon her ordinary employment.

These people dispose of their daughters when they are too young to consummate the marriage, in which case the ceremony is as follows:--On the day appointed for the wedding, all the kindred, on both sides, assemble at the house of the bride's father, where a great entertainment is prepared. In the evening the bride is taken to the bridegroom's house, and put into her husband's bed between two women; this ceremony is repeated three successive nights, after which she is sent back to her father's house, where she remains until the age to consummate the marriage. Some

have twenty or thirty wives, as the more wives they have, the more they are respected; but common people seldom have more than ten. When the husband thinks proper to sleep with one of his other wives, he gives her a private intimation thereof, in order to prevent jealousy, and she retires to her apartment with the greatest privacy.

The poor people of this country carry their children at the back when at their labour, and when they suckle them, raise the child to their shoulder, and turn the breast up to them. When they arrive at the age of ten or twelve, the father takes the boys under his care and instruction, the mother keeps the girls.

The punishment for adultery is by fine, on which account many women, with consent of their husbands, bestow their favours so that the husband may take advantage of those who have thus injured them. Others, whose admirers know them to be married, will swear eternal secrecy, but it is only with a design of drawing the lover in, for immediately they see their husband they will confess; indeed, the consequence might be fatal were they to conceal it, if the husband should come to the knowledge of it by any other means; but, by this method, they both gratify their own inclination and their husband's avarice.

The inland negroes are much more strict in cases of adultery than those on the coast. He

who debauches a man's wife is not only ruined, but his relations often suffer with him; and if the injured party be rich, he will not only exact a fine, but very often the life of the offender. If the criminal be a slave, his life is inevitably forfeited, and a heavy fine laid on his master. A woman caught in adultery is also in great danger of losing her life, unless her relations can pacify her husband with money, or some valuable present; but her life is certainly forfeited if she be guilty with a slave of her husband's, and also the slave's, in a most cruel manner; in addition to which, her relations are heavily fined; and if adultery be committed with any of the king's wives, the man is buried alive, and the woman burnt.

Among the QUOJAS, of Guinea, when a boy is to be named, the father walks through the village armed with bows and arrows; he keeps continually singing, and as he passes along the neighbours join him with musical instruments. As soon as the people are properly assembled, they form a ring, and the person appointed to perform the ceremony, takes the child out of the mother's arms, lays it upon a shield, puts a bow into one hand, and a quiver in the other. He then makes a long harangue to the people, after which he addresses himself to the infant, wishing the child may be like its father, industrious, hospitable, and a good husbandman. He then names the child,

after which the company retire; and the evening is concluded with festivity. They use the same but appropriate ceremonies at the naming of a girl.

If a woman be accused of adultery, she is allowed to swear that she is innocent. Should it be afterwards proved that she has sworn falsely, she is publicly led by her husband to the market-place, where a council sits to hear the merits of the case. If guilty she is repremanded; should she however relapse again, the bellino, or priest, and his attendants go early in the morning to the place where she resides, and with horrid noises seize and convey her to the market-place, where the council again sits, round which she must walk three times, that they may have an opportunity of viewing her; none but the brotherhood, or priests, who are to have the management of the trial must be present; any others must not even presume to look out of the windows. When the proceedings, which are kept entirely to themselves, are over, she is conducted to a sacred grove called belli, and is never after heard of. The negroes, in general, think they are carried away by the spirits; but it is most likely, and indeed some of the more sensible think the same, that they are put to death by the priests; yet at the same time they allege that it is done merely to appease the belli, or god.

In some parts of the Gold Coast, the wife who is first delivered of a boy is distinguished as the 11.

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favourite, or chief; but this distinction is frequently fatal to her; for, if the husband die first, she must follow his corpse to the grave, and be buried alive with it.*

* Marchais, who was once an eye witness to this dreadful ceremony, gives the following description of it :-"The captain, (says he) or chief of the village dying of a hard drinking bout of brandy, the cries of his wives immediately spread the news through the village. All the women ran and howled like furies; the favourite wife distinguished herself by her grief, and not without cause. However, as several women in the same case have prudently thought fit to make their escape, the rest of the women, under pretence of comforting her, took care she should have no opportunity of escaping. The relations of the deceased came to pay their respects to the body. When the marabut, or priest, had examined the body, and ascertained that the death was natural, he, with his assistance, washed and dried the corpse, and then rubbed it all over with fat; they afterwards stretched it upon a mat in the middle of the house. The wives of the deceased were next round it, and his other women and relations next to them, the favourite being placed near the head as the post of honour; several other women formed a circle round them, each of them endeavouring to out-roar the others, tearing their hair, and scratching themselves methodically, like people who know perfectly well the part they were to act. Sometimes they were silent for a while, while others repeated the actions and praises of the deceased; then beginning their lamentations afresh. This mock music lasted two hours, when four lusty negroes entered the hut, and tied the dead body on a hand-barrow made of branches of trees; then lifting it on their shoulders they carried it through the town, running as fast as they could, and reeling about as if they were intoxicated, and making a thousand ridiculous gestures, very suitable to the loud lamentations making by