in the world, are bodily strength and the excess of births over
deaths.

Separation after marriage can hardly be dignified on the Gaboon
by the name of divorce. Whenever a woman has or fancies she has a
grievance, she leaves her husband, returns to "the paternal" and
marries again. Quarrels about the sex are very common, yet, in
cases of adultery the old murderous assaults are now rare except
amongst the backwoodsmen. The habit was simply to shoot some man
belonging to the seducer's or to the ravisher's village; the
latter shot somebody in the nearest settlement, and so on till
the affair was decided. In these days "violent retaliation for
personal jealousy always 'be-littles' a man in the eyes of an
African community." Perhaps also he unconsciously recognizes the
sentiment ascribed to Mohammed, "Laysa bi-zanyatin ilia bi zani,"
"there is no adulteress without an adulterer," meaning that the
husband has set the example.

Polygamy is, of course, the order of the day; it is a necessity
to the men, and even the women disdain to marry a "one-wifer." As
amongst all pluralists, from Moslem to Mormon, the senior or
first married is No. 1; here called "best wife:" she is the
goodman's viceroy, and she rules the home-kingdom with absolute
sway. Yet the Mpongwe do not, like other tribes on the west
coast, practise that separation of the sexes during gestation and
lactation, which is enjoined to the Hebrews, recommended by
Catholicism, and commanded by Mormonism--a system which partly
justifies polygamy. In Portuguese Guinea the enceinte is claimed
by her relatives, especially by the women, for three years, that
she may give undivided attention to her offspring, who is rightly