situation applying a warm hand, and rubbing it until it shrinks up
into a thick _weal_ across the lower part of the forehead. Most of the
judges and senators were thus marked; my father had long born it: I
had seen it conferred on one of my brothers, and I was also
_destined_ to receive it by my parents. Those Embrence, or chief men,
decided disputes and punished crimes; for which purpose they always
assembled together. The proceedings were generally short; and in most
cases the law of retaliation prevailed. I remember a man was brought
before my father, and the other judges, for kidnapping a boy; and,
although he was the son of a chief or senator, he was condemned to
make recompense by a man or woman slave. Adultery, however, was
sometimes punished with slavery or death; a punishment which I believe
is inflicted on it throughout most of the nations of Africa[A]: so
sacred among them is the honour of the marriage bed, and so jealous
are they of the fidelity of their wives. Of this I recollect an
instance:--a woman was convicted before the judges of adultery, and
delivered over, as the custom was, to her husband to be punished.
Accordingly he determined to put her to death: but it being found,
just before her execution, that she had an infant at her breast; and
no woman being prevailed on to perform the part of a nurse, she was
spared on account of the child. The men, however, do not preserve the
same constancy to their wives, which they expect from them; for they
indulge in a plurality, though seldom in more than two. Their mode of
marriage is thus:--both parties are usually betrothed when young by
their parents, (though I have known the males to betroth themselves).
On this occasion a feast is prepared, and the bride and bridegroom
stand up in the midst of all their friends, who are assembled for the
purpose, while he declares she is thenceforth to be looked upon as his
wife, and that no other person is to pay any addresses to her. This is
also immediately proclaimed in the vicinity, on which the bride