er. She had been
for some years loved by her husband but had had no children; so her
husband had married another wife and disliked her now, and she wanted
medicine from me to make him love her again! She begged me never to
mention that she had come to me, saying that her husband would certainly
beat her nearly to death if he knew that she had come out, and much more
so if he knew she had come to me.

The ease with which all Hausa women, but specially those of the middle
and lower classes, can obtain divorce for almost any reason; also the
frequency with which they can obtain redress for cruelty from their
husbands in the native courts, gives them power and a position in the
community not to be despised. A man, for instance, in order to get a
girl of sixteen years in marriage will pay her parents a sum of perhaps
ten or twelve pounds. If at any future time she desires to leave him and
marry another man, she can do so by swearing before the native courts
that they have quarrelled and that she no longer wishes to live with
him. But if that is all she merely gets a paper of divorce and either
herself or her next husband has to refund to the aggrieved former
husband the sum originally paid for her. If, however, she can prove
violence or injury from her husband she has not to pay him anything, but
may even in some cases get damages.

A girl is usually given the option of refusing the man whom her parents
have arranged for her to marry. This is not often done, but I have known
of some cases in which the girl has availed herself of the privilege,
and stated that she prefers some one else, in which case the engagement
is broken and the new marriage arranged at once with the man of her
choice.

In the villages, and among the lower classes in the cities, girls are
not usually married until they are about sixteen. Frequently, however,
among the higher and wealthier classes the engagement is made by the
parents when she is much younger, perhaps eleven or twelve, and she is
after that confined with some strictness to the house or else carefully
watched.

There is a very vicious and terribly degrading habit amongst the Hausas,
which is known as "Tsaranchi." One cannot give in a word an English
equivalent and one does not desire to describe its meaning. It has the
effect of demoralizing most of the young girls and making it almost
certain that very few girls of even eleven or twelve have retained any
feelings of decency and virtue