dress, impress others with her dignity and modesty." (_British
Medical Journal_. June 14, 1890.)

"The women at Upoto wear no clothes whatever, and came up to us
in the most unreserved manner. An interesting gradation in the
arrangement of the female costume has been observed by us: as we
ascended the Congo, the higher up the river we found ourselves,
the higher the dress reached, till it has now, at last,
culminated in absolute nudity." (T.H. Parke, _My Personal
Experiences in Equatorial Africa_, 1891, p. 61.)

"There exists throughout the Congo population a marked
appreciation of the sentiment of decency and shame as applied to
private actions," says Mr. Herbert Ward. In explanation of the
nudity of the women at Upoto, a chief remarked to Ward that
"concealment is food for the inquisitive." (_Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, 1895, p. 293.)

In the Gold Coast and surrounding countries complete nudity is
extremely rare, except when circumstances make it desirable; on
occasion clothing is abandoned with unconcern. "I have on several
occasions," says Dr. Freeman, "seen women at Accra walk from the
beach, where they have been bathing, across the road to their
houses, where they would proceed to dry themselves, and resume
their garments; and women may not infrequently be seen bathing in
pools by the wayside, conversing quite unconstrainedly with their
male acquaintances, who are seated on the bank. The mere
unclothed body conveys to their minds no idea of indecency.
Immodesty and indelicacy of manner are practically unknown." He
adds that the excessive zeal of missionaries in urging their