ry benediction of a holy act. The fact that woman is so fruitful I
attribute to her treasures of tenderness, to that ocean of goodness
which permeates her heart.... Africa is a woman. Her races are
feminine.... In many of the black tribes of Central Africa the women
rule, and they are as intelligent as they are amiable and kind."

The reference in Michelet to the generosity of the African woman to
travelers brings to mind the incident in Mungo Park's travels, where the
African women fed, nourished, and saved him. The men had driven him
away. They would not even allow him to feed with the cattle; and so,
faint, weary, and despairing, he went to a remote hut and lay down on
the earth to die. One woman, touched with compassion, came to him,
brought him food and milk, and at once he revived. Then he tells us of
the solace and the assiduities of these gentle creatures for his
comfort. I give you his own words: "The rites of hospitality thus
performed toward a stranger in distress, my worthy benefactress,
pointing to the mat, and telling me that I might sleep there without
apprehension, called to the female part of her family which had stood
gazing on me all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume the task of
spinning cotton, in which they continued to employ themselves a great
part of the night. They lightened their labors by songs, one of which
was composed extempore, for I was myself the subject of it. It was sung
by one of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chime. The air
was sweet and plaintive, and the words, literally translated, were
these: 'The winds roared and the rains fell; the poor white man, faint
and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him
milk, no wife to grind his corn. Let us pity the white man, no mother
has he,'" etc.

Perhaps I may be pardoned the intrusion, just here, on my own personal
experience. During a residence of nigh twenty years in West Africa, I
saw the beauty and felt the charm of the native female character. I saw
the native woman in her _heathen_ state, and was delighted to see, in
numerous tribes, that extraordinary sweetness, gentleness, docility,
modesty, and especially those maternal solicitudes which make every
African boy both gallant and defender of his mother.

I saw her in her _civilized_ state, in Sierra Leone; saw precisely the
same characteristics, but heightened, dignified, refined, and sanctified
by the training of the schools, the ref