rica, H. Crawford Angus, who has spent
many years in this part of Africa, writes: "It has been my
experience that the more naked the people, and the more to us
obscene and shameless their manners and customs, the more moral
and strict they are in the matter of sexual intercourse." He
proceeds to give a description of the _chensamwali_, or
initiation ceremony of girls at puberty, a season of rejoicing
when the girl is initiated into all the secrets of marriage, amid
songs and dances referring to the act of coition. "The whole
matter is looked upon as a matter of course, and not as a thing
to be ashamed of or to hide, and, being thus openly treated of
and no secrecy made about it, you find in this tribe that the
women are very virtuous. They know from the first all that is to
be known, and cannot see any reason for secrecy concerning
natural laws or the powers and senses that have been given them
from birth." (_Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1898, Heft 6, p.
479.)

Of the Monbuttu of Central Africa, another observer says: "It is
surprising how a Monbuttu woman of birth can, without the aid of
dress, impress others with her dignity and modesty." (_British
Medical Journal_. June 14, 1890.)

"The women at Upoto wear no clothes whatever, and came up to us
in the most unreserved manner. An interesting gradation in the
arrangement of the female costume has been observed by us: as we
ascended the Congo, the higher up the river we found ourselves,
the higher the dress reached, till it has now, at last,
culminated in absolute nudity." (T.H. Parke, _My Personal
Experiences in Equatorial Africa_, 1891, p. 61.)

"There exists throughout the Congo population a marked
appreciation of the sentiment of decency and shame as applied to
private actions," says Mr. Herbert Ward. In explanation of the
nudity of the women at Upoto, a chief remarked to Ward that
"concealment is food for the inquisitive." (_Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, 1895, p. 293.)

In the Gold Coast and surrounding countries complete nudity is
extremely rare, except when circumstances make it desirable; on
occasion clothing is abandoned with unconcern. "I have on several
occasions," says Dr. Freeman, "seen women at Accra walk from the
beach, where they have been bathing, across the road to their
houses, w