[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

PENTECOSTE 2 3 5

parents pay back the money and the husband gives
up his wife. What is valued highest in a woman is
her capacity for work; but the young men have a
marked taste for beauty, and there are girls that are
courted by all the young fellows of the village, and
who, although married to an old man, accept the
addresses of a young one. The husband does not
seem to mind much, provided the woman continues
to work well for him.

There is such a thing as love even here, and it
has been known to grow so powerful as to lead, if
unrequited, to suicide or to rapid pining away and to
death.

On the whole, the women are treated fairly well
by their husbands, but for an occasional beating,
which is often provoked by foolish behaviour; and
they are taken care of, as they represent a great
value. There are old ruffians, however, who take
a perverse pleasure in torturing their wives, and
these unhappy women are quite helpless, as they
are entirely in the power of their husbands. Other-
wise, the fate of the women is not as bad as many
- people think, and the severest rules have never yet
prevented Eve from finding and taking her pleasure.

During babyhood the children stay with their
mothers; but from the age of four on the boys spend
most of their time in the gamal, while the girls remain
under their mother’s care. Clothes are not worn by
the boys till they have joined the Suque, which, in
some cases, takes place long after puberty. The
girls seem to begin to wear something whenever the