So we stroll about making observations, to console
ourselves for the loss of sport. We noticed several cotton-bushes, but
this useful plant is not cultivated here except that it may ornament the
gardens with its green. I have just eaten of the heart of the date-tree.
It is of a very delicious bitter, and is a choice dish at feasts.
I met with a number of the suburban inhabitants engaged in celebrating a
wedding. First came a group of women, dancing and throwing themselves
into a variety of slow, languid, and lascivious postures, to the sound
of some very primitive string-instrument. Towards this group all the
women of the neighbouring huts were gathering, some merely as
spectators, others bringing dishes of meat. Beyond was a crowd of men,
among whom was the bridegroom helping the musicians to make a noise.
These musicians were an old man and old woman, each above ninety years
of age. The latter beat a calabash with a stick, whilst the former drew
a bow over a single string tied to another calabash. The bridegroom had
got hold of a brass kettle, with which he supplied his contribution to
the din. Preparations for supper were going on; and, the harmony
announcing this fact, idlers were coming in flocks from the distant
hamlets and the fields. Two new huts had been built, one for the bride
and the other for the bridegroom.
These marriages produce very few children, which may partly arise from
licentiousness, but chiefly, no doubt, from misery.
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