to, or even acknowledge, any man as their father, even when their male
parentage is perfectly well known. There is but one titular male parent
of each tribe, or, as they call it, "Household," and he is its elected
and immediate ruler, with the title of "Father." For instance, the man
Billali was the father of this "household," which consisted of about
seven thousand individuals all told, and no other man was ever called
by that name. When a woman took a fancy to a man she signified her
preference by advancing and embracing him publicly, in the same way that
this handsome and exceedingly prompt young lady, who was called Ustane,
had embraced Leo. If he kissed her back it was a token that he accepted
her, and the arrangement continued until one of them wearied of it. I
am bound, however, to say that the change of husbands was not nearly so
frequently as might have been expected. Nor did quarrels arise out
of it, at least among the men, who, when their wives deserted them
in favour of a rival, accepted the whole thing much as we accept the
income-tax or our marriage laws, as something not to be disputed, and as
tending to the good of the community, however disagreeable they may in
particular instances prove to the individual.

It is very curious to observe how the customs of mankind on this matter
vary in different countries, making morality an affair of latitude, and
what is right and proper in one place wrong and improper in another. It
must, however, be understood that, since all civilised nations appear to
accept it as an axiom that ceremony is the touchstone of morality, there
is, even according to our canons, nothing immoral about this Amahagger
custom, seeing that the interchange of the embrace answers to our
ceremony of marriage, which, as we know, justifies most things.

VII

USTANE SINGS

When the kissing operation was finished--by the way, none of the young
ladies offered to pet me in this fashion, though I saw one hovering
round Job, to that respectable individual's evident alarm--the old man
Billali advanced, and graciously waved us into the cave, whither we
went, followed by Ustane, who did not seem inclined to take the hints I
gave her that we liked privacy.

Before we had gone five paces it struck me that the cave that we were
entering was none of Nature's handiwork, but, on the contrary, had been
hollowed by the hand of man. So far as we could judge it appeared to
be about one hundred feet in leng