WHITES AND BLACKS OR THE QUESTION SETTLED 37

CHAPTER V. SHALL THE WHITE MAN AND THE NEGRO SEPARATE?

"Polygamists?"

"Oh, yes: it is different from the Utah polygamy, and much prettier. When a man dies his wives are taken by his brother. A young woman has no choice whatever as to the man she shall marry. With the young fellow it is different. His parents choose his first wife for him. 

She remains the 'head wife' ever after. The parents are very careful, and the son never thinks of objecting. The male parent, of course, has most to say about the son’s marriage, but the mother is also allowed a voice. They together make a choice. By the way, the boy tells his mother that he wishes to marry, and she tells the father. After their choice is made, they bargain for the girl. The first payment, if the bargain is made, is a string of beads. This clinches the bargain. It is a sort of installment sale as it were.

"Divorce? No, the natives have no divorce. The civilized people have. The president has been three times divorced. It is terribly common amongst the civilized."

"What about the woman's position in their society."

"Woman is a kind of property. They have no vote, though I am sure they would govern better than the men. They are more intelligent. They live to an almost incredible age. It is very common, indeed, to find persons considerably over one hundred years old. 

The reason Mary Newport came to be so prominent is this: Whenever there is a popular hue-and-cry — when there is frenzy of any kind, the women are invariably leaders.Why, two of the presidents have been killed by the populace, not assassinated, but actually mobbed."

"What about the climate?"

"Wet six months, dry six months, I have seen it rain for two weeks without stopping ten minutes, aggregate stop in the whole time. It pours, too, when it does rain."