hear the conversation, as I often have, the secret of the utter
depravity of all the people is soon learned, and one sees how it is that
none grow up with any idea of purity. The minds of even young children
are vitiated from the earliest age.

I have found many very "religious" women. It must, however, not be
forgotten that the religion of Islam is totally divorced from the
practice of all morals. Women in some numbers attend the weekly midday
service in the mosques, sitting apart and worshipping.

One very handsome woman whom I knew had as a little child been enslaved,
and later married to the Emir of Zaria, and had been the mother or
stepmother of many of the Zaria princes. She was a very religious woman,
was allowed a fair amount of liberty, and was much respected. She not
infrequently attended the services and was much interested. But it is
certain that, with the exception of the use of a certain number of pious
expressions, religion has little hold over the Hausa women, and they can
in no sense be considered to share in the devotions of the men, or to be
companions with the men in those things which are the deepest part of
human nature. Hence with Christians there is the learning of a new
relationship altogether, when the man begins to feel that his wife must
be his companion and helpmeet in things pertaining to all his life and
soul and spirit.

Amongst the very lowest classes, with whom there are less objections to
coming into contact with men, and especially white men, and who in their
suffering have allowed us to minister to them, I have been able to get a
glimpse into the terrible sufferings of the poor women of all the other
classes. In their hours of agony and suffering they can get no
alleviation, no nursing or skill to shorten the hours of weary pain, and
in large numbers they die terrible deaths for the lack of that surgical
help we could so easily render them. I was able once to visit a woman
who seemed to be dying. She was in a terrible condition; the complete
delivery of her child could not be effected, and for two days she had
been in a shocking state. In their despair her people asked me to come,
and within three hours, by surgical knowledge, we were able to put her
right, and finally get her to sleep and complete her cure. But we were
told that many, many died in the condition in which we found her, and
that there was never any thought of calling for help. Many a man who
seemed fairly intellige