, fc.-W ' IV
" :kr S-ti ! f ' v T , - - lMESji
HER TO- THE CiROOtl-
XHE G1KL..1S "UNDER TMT COTTPOlOH
THE "WDilAliiS . BACK.'.
BY PRANK G. CARPENTER.
BEFORE I leave the heart of the
Black Continent, to start south for
the white man's Africa, that land of
old and diamonds below the Zambesi,
1 want to write a letter about the queer
customs of our African sisters. They are
an Important half of this dark-complexioned
world, and every , nation and tribe
has its own ways of treating them. I
have already written of the .Mohammedan
maidens along the coast of the Mediter
ranean: they go about clad all in white
or black, each having only a single eye
hole in her garments to find her way
along the streets. I have written of the
fatr-skinned Jewesses of Tunis. They
dress in Jackets and trousers, and a
pair of their embroidered breeches often
costs as much as $200. I have told you
how they are fattened for marriage by
epecial feeding and how a popular belle
often .weighs . pounds, or about as
much as our own dear Secretary Taft. I
J;ave described the women of Tripoli and
Egypt, where the girls cover their faces
with long veils when they go out of 1
cloors. and also the dancing maidens of
he Sahara, called the Ouled Nails, who
tiave brazen, bare faces and paint their
eyelids black with kohl, and stain their
linger nails and toe nails red with henna.
Further down the continent I learned
much about the women of the British
possessions, where John Bull is now
regulating the marriages, fixing the price
of brides, old and young, lean and fat.
yood-looking and the reverse, at $3 apiece;
nd still farther south, about the women
now ruled by the Germans, who are al
lowed to marry as they please, according
to custom. I have also notes before me
gathered during my travels In Portuguese
East Africa, Mashonaland. Matabeleland,
and here on the edge of the. Kongo Free
State. Indeed, the material is such that
J hardly know where to begin, and I
e-hall dip into my notes, jumping from
one place to another, as the subject de
mands. Adventure- With a Vsukuma Bride.
Let me start with ,the description of a
redding procession which I saw in Ger
man East Africa, on the lower edge of
Victoria Nyanza. The people there are
known as Basukumas. There are half a
million of them and they are considered
& strong race. They are Bantu negroes,
who dross In cowsklns and cottons and
who have cattle, sheep and goats. When
A valine, man there wantK a wife he DRVS
her father 60 sheep for ner or agrees to
work ror tne oia man u numwr ui yeais.
aii w.apriacra i.mnrompnti nre ma.de hv
Ito-betweens. and the matchmaker brings
(the bride to tne groom, in me niranwunc
the chief bridesmaid has arranged the
frnnm'a hut for the occasion and a new
ed is made, consisting of a framework
of wood with a mattress of oxskina. The
oridesmaid is paid a sheep for this work.
After this she goes witn xne nuucnraantr.
mitrht h failed Another bridesmaid
to the house of the bride and brings her
H ln OT-aafr .f via
It was such a procession that I stopped
mnminr nn its wav to the groom. It
i - - - r--w- T-ti nr. n f m' n m P Tl
NCOnBlBlU 11 " " " " - "
kjt.ra,l Im varment of COWSkitlS and COt-
jton. yelling and singing as they danced
tlong about a queer-iooung nguro wuiun
h.v.MjM.aiv mnviwl in the center. At
jflrst I could not make out what it was.
lit looked like a woman with a gigantic
taump. wrapped around with bright fig
k.,r. Indian cotton. As the party came
L.i.. ihh fleure turned sidewise. The
li - .V,sn tnnt the nhHIie Of tlUIHIl
hform and I could see that the woman was
evidently carrying a sister or brother
under her calico gown. I handed my
camera to my son. Jack, who "was with
arrrnteH the ludv. She laughed
and I attempted to make out what kind
of a creature she carried. I could see
i . i hiuir 'footsie wootsies" stick
ing out at the front, and by the outline of
,,.h.. cotton could see that it
covered a lusty girl who was holding on
m u .ma m the woman who carried
her. Her hands were clasped together
.over the bridesmaids breast ana tne
'bridesmaid was also supporting her by
!vu.. hoi- ankles, which stuck out on
iah IH the body. I put my hand on
I har.tr unit the bride sauirmed
Aut when I attempted to touch her bare
feet the bridesmaid objected. All this
wook but a few moments and as I stepped
'back the procession went on. The sec
d hriH.tmiM mood behind the bride-
hM nn umbrella over her,
As the party neared the hut of the
groom a score of other women, the rela
tives of the groom, rushed out and scat-
n.-or tit hrlde and the escort-
. in party. I peeped into the hut Just be
: fore they arrived, and thus got a look at
the bridal chamber. It was a dark closet
shut in by bark-cloth, and the bed was of
cowskin. I was told that the groom was
nr.u.nr anrl that ha WOUld COmS
1. J ' t , , .
I rn and take possession after the brides-
maids had arranged everything and fitted
' tha but for tho pair. Ka had already
V X ' Ik. rfv.iw te
given 60 sheep to his father-in-law and
one sheep to the bride's sister.
What Wives Cost.
Sixty sheep seemed to me a big price for
a wife, and I asked the Germans whether
many girls were not sold at reduced rates.
The reply was in the affirmative, but it
was added that a good, lusty woman was
worth something as a worker and tmit
the women were the slaves of the family.
They take care of the stock, cultivate the
crops and also keep house. The men do
little but loaf. Besides it costs almost
nothing to keep an extra wife there, as
the women are not allowed to eat chicK
ens or eggs, even the necks and the giz
zards being forbidden to them. In the
Kavlrondo country at the northeast of
the lake, I was informed that the usual
price for a wife is 40 iron hoes, 30 goats
and a cow. and that these articles can be
paid on Installments. In Uganda the gov
ernment price is S3 per girl, but more is
usually given for the daughter of a chief.
Among the Kandi tribes the richest men
have from 10 to S wives, and the price of
a good maiden of 14 is six cows. Girls are
often betrothed as early as 7. and they
are married at 11. xne cowa are ou-u
paid on installments, and if no child Is
kim nHrhln a vear after the marriage the
husband may stop payment. It is among
these jsanai, as wiin mo
x ,,.t th atlnnea of Mount Kili-
1UUJIU wvuiii ..." 1 "
manjaro and also on the highlands or
British East Ainca, mat. ure juui
married girls dwell with the young un
married men in the bachelor quarters, and
until they are old enough to get married.
A Masai man ts not suppowa w .nn.
until he is 30. Among tne uuvumas m
price of a wife is two cows and five goats.
t,A r.thoi. nf .the hride kecDS
one of the cows and a goat, the other four
goats being given to tne relative..
A Tax on Wives.
rtnnrn in Dhnriesia the usual price for a
strong, good-looking girl is four cows, and
if she is the daughter of a cniei sne may
bring as much as five or six. The govern
ment taxes every native V a year tor nis
hut and family, and this includes a tax
: it ha haa more than one he
tur UHU rt u'.
-i ia .killing fnr farh extra wife.
IB ft ' " IV onuiiuf). -
The Kaffir girls are married at as early
as 13, and a girl is oneit ohhkcu '
years of age. Such engagements are made
by the parents and several cattle form a
part of the dowry. It Is a custom among
the Kaffirs not to aiiow a ioi" mum
pr to marrv until each of his older broth
ers has at least one wife, and the father
often helps pay the" brides.
About mxe enire gins uncn wc-
. . i j th.i. tnfanrv. nnd thev are
sometimes actually engaged before they
are born, in sucn cases mo
groom or his parents are expected to
clothe the girl until sne is oiu enuuKn m
be married, but as the only clothing in
her early life is a waist ciotn ana oicen
m. hA a .trlnv tha aTttPllSA l.e TlOt
DDI UIUID ma" n '
heavy. The people there have from one
to 20 wives, accoraing to meir wea.nn, mm
in times past the chiefs had harems of as
hunrtroH wntHPII I'flrh Aft
Hi iu y on c -"
rule the number of wives is decreasing all
over South Ainca. ana wiin me unui
for foreign goods which is gradually
growing, making the support of women
more expensive, there is likely to be still
further decrease.
Bridal Costumes.
The Question of dress Is not a serious
one in most parts of Central Africa. It is
different north of the Sahara, where a
pair of bridal trousers may, as I have
stated, cost J200 and upward, and where
breeches of cloth of gold are not uncom
mon. The lightest wedding costume 1
have seen in my travels is that which
the women wear at the end of the Uganda
railroad. The men go absolutely naked
and the married women have on nothing
but a sort of fly brush tall about 12 inches
long, which they fasten to a string around
the waist.
In this same country the women wear
no clothes whatever until married, when
they adopt the tail. A little change is
now beginning along the line of the rail
road, but a few miles back nudity pre
vails. Notwithstanding this, the Kavl
rondo are said to be of a much higher
grade of morality than their neighbors,
who are more or less clad.
A little south of that region I came
upon a tribe where the ladles wear about
the waist fiber fringes of the length of
my hand or longer, and on the opposite
j. t j ir& victoria I saw hundreds of
o-lri. clad all in grass. I say "all." but
this means only a skirt which reaches
from the waist to the knees. The young
The Uganda women wear bark-cloth
and cover the whole person. They have
great blankets which, they wrap around
thcTS, binding them in at the breast and
-1 .. TnHoiilt thav AM BS1 Well CO tfrpd
that they could go through an American
-i. .t.hn.. katn artwatad hv that nnlir.
( 1 L wtuivui v-.., . - J a
This would not be possible for a Kavlron
do woman.
Down hero near Broken Hill the women
- jtltth which reachea from the
wai.i t the knees, and also a kind of
A.rAv tha hroaat n n it haplc.
onuon . v' ' " 1 : " ' 1
They are plump, lusty-looking maidens.
THE SUNDAY OKEGOyiAX, PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 13, 1908.
jI) i.k . - wo. -r t
T&IBEtf" OF
and can use th native hoe and mattock
far better than the men. Indeed, the men
do almost no work in the cornfields, that
work being left to their wives.
Our American belles adore dimples, and
it is said that their dimples are some
times artificially-made. They adorn their
wWte faces with black patches of court
plaster, and also comb their hair in out
landish shapes. I have seen nn American
beauty with a diamond set in one of her
front teeth, and we all know of women
who paint, powder and enamel.
The same effort to beautiful one's seir
goes on throughout Africa, save that the
standards of beauty are different." Among
the Banyoro, who live north of Uganda,
the women knock out the six front teeth
of the lower jaw and the young men do
the same. The Jaluo women have a simi
lar custom. On the south side of ictoria
Nvanza there are tribes where the wo
men file their teeth sharp like a. saw,
and the Buvumas knock out two of the
Incisors, tlie price for each such operation
being four cowry shells or a fraction or
a cent. , . .
Most of the African womfn scar their
bodies to beautify them. I have seen
girls with Persian shawl patterns on
their breasts nd abdomens, and others
with great welts on tneir itrreiigtig-
.. .
r
Amazing Memory of A.
Dead llbr.rS ot Consres, Had T. Slot. ,1 Ilorn,,.lo.
AMAN who Will DB misa '
worth R. Spofford, Librarian of
Congress between the years 1864
... . i n .a I. Atna-
and 1897, and from 1S97 until his death
in New Hampshire the other day Chief
Assistant Librarian of Congress. All
told, ho lad been attached to the Na
tional Library In one capacity or an
other, but for the greater part of the
time as its head, for 46 years, having
been appointed to a place in the library
by President Lincoln in 1861.
Ho will be missed by a good many
different classes of people here, but
chiefly by tha Legislators. More than
a generation of Representatives in Con
gress, and particularly the new fellows,
were In the habit of leaning upon
brusque-mannered, book-absorbed Spof
ford. Yet during all the period, nearly
half a century, which the librarian
spent in Washington nobody ever suc
ceeded in finding out what his politics
were.
It is doubtful if he leaned toward
any party. He was a student and a
keen critic of the game, but he never
dipped into it to the extent of revealing
even a svmptom of partisanship.
The difficulties underlying such neu
trality may better be understood when
It is stated that Republicans and Demo-
.III,. In CnnrrPHS lent ear to his
wisdom when they found themselves in
tight pinches. He never gave unso
ii.h. a itiria nut when he was ap
proached by a man desirous of profiting
PUZZLE-WHAT IS THE
CUSTOM? OF COURTSHIP
THE BLACtf
cheeks, marking the tribe to which they
belong. In the Sudan there are scores
of such tribal marks, and -ayh tribe has
its own way of scarring. Mutilation of
v. AnM la oAmmnn tlirnnchout Central
Africa. The Swahilis enlarge the holes in
the lobes until they become mere straps
.hth n.m tnlrtaa o clnna tumbler The9e
eame girls have holes all around the
rims of their ears, wnicn tney nn wim
rolls of paper.
The Masai women load down their ears
with jewelry, fastening great weights to
the holes in the lobes so that, they are
gradually pulled down until they flop
against the shoulders.
In German East Africa there are people
who wear great rings and plugs In their
lower Hp and In the upper l!p as welL
Such ornaments elongate the upper lip so
that it extends several inches out over
the mouth.
Queer Ways of Hair Dressing.
Until I came to Africa I thought the
American girl could put up her hair
In more outlandish ways than any
other maiden on earth. She has many
competitors and some superiors among
the ebony belles of the Black t onti.
by his experience and counsel he never
considered the party end of the propo
sition, but told what he thought of
the situation in a stralght-from-the-shoulder,
take-it-or-leave-lt manner, that
could admit of no doubt as to his mean
ing. Nor did it make the slightest differ
ence to him whether his advice was
followed or not. Probably Spofford did
not know, in one case out of a hundred,
whether or not his counsel had been
adopted. He was that unusual combi
nation, a book-submerged man who was
. .Inoira In plrlftR. tOUCh With thO
doings of the world, but he considered
the affair at an end when a public man
i i htm nhat h thouatht of a certain
situation in politics, got the answer and
went his way.
He was well beloved for his sound
sense and his humor and a certain
quaintness of temperament and dispo
sition by a line of publtc men extending
from Tliad Stevens to Theodore Roose
velt. He was considered one of the
most learned men in the world. He was
the court of last resort In Washington
as to knotty points - of parliamentary
procedure. He wrote a standard book
on that subject, and it was no unusual
thing for Speakers of the House like
Blaine and Keifer and Crisp and Hen
derson and Cannon to ask Spofford to
help them to unravel knotty parliamen
tary kinks that came up.
He will be missed and mourned too
by hundreds of Washington young men
whom he aided in getting an educa
tion. He had a way of mapping out
MAN, JUST BACK FROM HIS VACATION, TELLING ABOUT?
CONTINENT
I ;:7f . y
f .,. ::-::--;ms..:: .-5- ?
r 'fiiinmii mi i i t I
THE. OUTFIT Or" LA.
KAVJR.QNDO MAIDEN
COSTS JLJTTLE
nent. It Is true that these African
maidens in most cases have to conquer
the kink or corkscrew curl which cov
ers their pates, but nevertheless they
have many creations which surpass the
wonders of the marcel wave, of our
mighty pompadours and the other oddi
ties formed with the aid of the rat, the
curling iron or curl paper. The Sudan
ese braid their hair in long even curls,
so that it hangs out like the snakes
of the IVedusa. The Zulus put it up in
mighty towers, which often extend a
full foot above- the crown of the head,
and down in Natal a bridegroom goes
out to court his sweetheart with a pair
of real cowhorns tied upright upon his
head, so that they look as U they grew
there.
Along the eastern coast of Africa
there are many natives who braid the
hair in little windrows over the scalp.
Spofford
at Ev.n.-. Scrrtc.
regular university courses of reading
for promising appearing young chaps
introduced to him who couldn't afford
to go to college- and who did their
studying in accordance with his direc
tions after working hours. Scores of
men who were put through the mill in
this way under Spofford's guidance
have made good in many fields.
Perhaps he will be remembered long
er for his amazing memory than for
any other reason. He could not, as was
said of Macaulay, remember the hap
penings on the day when he was born,
nor did he perform such Macaulay feats
as corrunitting the whole of Milton or
Homer or the Bible to memory. Never
theless it was said of Spofford by schol
ars both of this country and of Europe
that probably he possessed the most
phenomenal memory of any man that
ever lived.
He not only knew books, but he knew
their contents. It was worth while to see
the tall, loose-Jointed old man with the
swarthy skin of an Indian engaged in
"reading" a book. What the average man
gets out of a book by careful reading
Spofford absorbed by skimming.
When the Library of Congress was still
In the Capitol you would come upon the
librarian standing in some dim, out-of-the-way
book-heaped aisle, with four or five
ponderous books under his arms and an
other opened before htm. He would be
quite unconscious of what was happening
around him while occupied with the job
of extracting the meat from the book be
fore his eyes.
He would turn the pages over rapidly,
and farther back there are many tribes
in which the women shave the head
close. This is so with the Baganda
and the Masai. Many of the native
women of Omdurman, in the Sudan,
shave not only the head, but every part
of the body, and it is a common cus
tom among many tribes for both men
and women to have themselves shaved
from head to foot before marriage.
Among some people the hair is pulled
out. This is also the custom among
our Moros of the Philippines and cer
tain tribes of the Amazon.
The Batoro, a tribe which Inhabits
the country between Lakes Albert and
Albert Edward, shave and oil their
brides before the wedding. The girl's
head is scraped off by tha village bar
ber, and her own sister uses the
razor over the rest of the body. After
this she is smeared from crown to toe
nail with butter and castor oil, the
stuff being well rubbed into the skin.
The Sesse Islanders pull out their
eyelashes, and babies have their heads
shaved shortly after birth. The 'old
Zulu men and women pull out the gray
hairs as they begin to appear, think
ing that gray hair makes old age. The
picking out the facts as the crab man
picks out the meat and often muttering to
himself as he fluttered the pages. He'd
go through the book to the last page, in
cluding addenda and errata, and then he'd
fling it into one of the heaps of books in
the aisle and "eat up." as the library
employes used to term it, one of the other
books under his arm.
Not a word could be got out of him. even
if the man waiting to address him were a
haughty United States Senator, until he'd
quite finished skimming the books he held
closely gripped under his arms, "for fear
they'd get away from him." as was said
by the men under him. Then, the last
book gobbled up, in a way of speaking,
he'd emerge from a sort of daze and step
back to the world of affairs again.
Everything that his mind absorbed by
this skimming process stuck there. This
was proved hundreds of times by marvel
ling friends of the librarian, who could
not see how anybody could get the heart
out of a book by riffling over the pages
in that manner.
Every time they tested him, as they
often did, and often on wagers with
friends, too, they found that he knew the
contents of the book he had merely
skimmed as thoroughly as If he'd spent
a laborious week in reading it. Not only
that, he'd even remember the number of
the page on which a certain fact or fig
ure, selected for the purpose of tryinS
him out. was presented.
It made no difference whether the vol
ume were a book of philosophy or a book
of statistics, Spofford got the ln'ards out
of it by his skimming method as thor
oughly as the reader who pondered the
book for days. Even more astonishing, he
could and did quote long passages, some
of them in foreign languages, from books
hA .iotimh nvpr In this wav.
The late Archbishop Chappelle and
Spofford were close friends, although at
different poles In the matter of religion.
One day a number of years ago the Arch
bishop found the librarian hurriedly
browsing in his accustomed manner
through a new work by Ernest Renan.
Archbishop Chappelle. a courtly and af
fable Frenchman, waited until Spofford
had tossed away the Renan volume. The
Archbishop himself had read the Renan
book with great care as soon as it Issued
from the press and was thoroughly famil
iar with its contents.
Spofford." he said chaillngly to the
nervous, jerky old librarian, "why do you
wate your own and the Government's
valuable time in such an unsatisfactory,
"Explain that, sir. explain It, said the
old gentleman, wheeling in bis quick,
marionettelike way upon the archbishop.
"I mean." said the archbishop, "picking
up a book that it took Renan about 30
years to write and professing, yes, sir.
professing, to find out the meaning of it,
say. within the space of 10 minutes while
standing first on one leg and then the
other and flicking over its pages."
"Tush, tush, sir; I know every line of
the book, every line of It. sir." replied the
librarian. "One does not have to be a
mole, sir, and bury himself in the ground
to read a book, like you religionists."
With a smile the archblshep picked up
the discarded Renan volume, openej it at
random, and asked SpofTord what the
Frenchman had to say with reference to
a certain doctrinal subject. '
To the archbishop's everlasting aston
ishment SDofford repeated in French, and
almost word for word. Renan's views as
to the matter about which Chappelle had
Inquired. Carrying the test further, the
archbishop, In the manner of an exam
iner, took the librarian smack through
the difficult 'volume, only to find at the
end of the test that the librarian, who
had only picked up the book a little while
before in wandering through the aisles,
had every part of the book as pat as if
he'd been poring over it in a study for
days and weeks.
Tom Reed, a man who always had to
be shown, used to take keen delight in
younger women there rub red clay and
oil in their hair, and they often plait
it into string-like strands. When they
trim their hair In Pondoland the hair
dresser puts a strap around the fore
head, and cuts the hair level with this
by means of a knife, stopping at th
strap, which protects the skin. Aftet
they are married they often train theii
hair into a cone-shaped mass, stiffen
ing It with red clay and oil for tin
purpose.
In all African countries the native
men are almost as particular as th
women as to the dresslnn of their hair.
In Zululand the married men wear
rings around their heads, twining the
hair over them and then smearing H
with charcoal and oil so that It can b
polished. It 1 a great insult to at
tempt to pull off a man's ring. In
many places the men shave their heads,
and up here In Rhodesia there is one
tribe which puts the hair up so that a
great spear shoots out right above tin
crown. This spear of hair Is some
times eo long that the man cannot
stand upright in his hut without dis
arranging it.
Broken Hill, Northwestern Rhodesia.
exhibiting Spofford's phenomenal powers
of memory to Incredulous friends. Upon
an occasion Reed strolled into the old li
brary in the Capitol to see Spofford about
something or other. He had to prowl all
over the place before he came upon the
librarian, who, standing near a window,
was skimming over the pages of a three
volume "Life and Itters" of Charles
James Fox, the British statesman, that
had Just been issued from the press.
Reed tackled Spofford about the thing
he had in mind, but the librarian didn't
even see him, much less hear him. He
went right along brushing over the pages
of the volumes about Fox.
Reed, who was then Speaker, smiled his
Chinese smile and wandered back to the
House of Representatives. He knew there
was no use In trying to get anything out
of Spofford while the librarian was "read
ing" a book.
Reed made a careful note of the work
he had seen Spofford absorbing on that
occasion, and he got the book and read it
himself with considerable care. Two years
later he walked in upon Spofford. accom
panied by some friends from Maine, one
day and said to him:
"Spofford, I'm interested In this Fox
fellow, the English Premier, you know.
Tremendous gambler, wasn't he? Where
can I get some facts about his gambling?
Was his gambling exaggerated?" and a
number of questions of similar import.
Spofford named, offhand, the biography
of Fox that Reed had himself seen the
librarian skimming two years before, in
which the matter of Fox's gambling hab
its was dwelt upon exhaustively. Then
he summarized. In about 400 or 600 words,
the gist of what the biography had set
forth as to Fox's gambling habits, glu
ing the amounts of great sums that Frftt
was said in that work to have won or
lost at hazard on certain occa-lons.
Reed and his friends listened attentive
ly and then when they returned to the
Speaker's room Reed sent for the biog
raphy of Fox. He turned to the part of
it which -dealt with Fox's ganjbling
methods and showed his visitors that
every fact and figure that had been
quoted by the librarian in his short sum
mary was exact to a dot.
Once the late Senator George Vest, of
Missouri, got into a discussion with a
Southern friend as to the production of
cotton in the South immediately before
and immediately after the Civil War. The
discussion took place in the Senator's
rooms and he had no books of reference
from which to ascertain the desired facts.
"I'll call up Spofford and ask him: he'll
know." said the Senator, and he went to
the telephone and got the librarian on the
wire.
"See here. Spofford." said Senator Vest
through the phone, "there's a crazy man
down here at my place who pretends to
know something about cotton, but he
doesn't know any more about cotton fig
ures than I do about the wool produc
tion of the Falkland Islands. What I
want to know is this: How much
cotton did this country produce in the
year 1S53 and in the year 1S69?"
Spofford named the two amounts In
bales without leaving the phone. Not
only that, but he named the numbers of
bales exported each year and the number
of bales kept at home for domestic con
sumption. "1 don't know what we're going to do
up at the Capitol when that old boy
dies," said Senator Vest, hanging up the
receiver. "All the same, I'm going to
check him up on this." and he made a
note of the figures Spofford had given
him.
On the following day. when he went to
the Capitol. Senator Vest looked Into a
book of reference and found that the
cotton figures Spofford had given him In
that offhand fashion over the phone were
correct to a bale.
i