lurking bitterness towards rivals, so it is not to be
imagined that the Mongo's mansion was free from womanly quarrels.
These disputes chiefly occurred when Ormond distributed gifts of
calico, beads, tobacco, pipes and looking-glasses. If the slightest
preference or inequality was shown, adieu to order. Unga-golah
descended below zero! The favorite wife, outraged by her neglected
authority, became furious; and, for a season, pandemonium was let
loose in Bangalang.

One of these scenes of passion occurs to me as I write. I was in the
store with the Mongo when an aggrieved dame, not remarkable either for
delicacy of complexion or sweetness of odor, entered the room, and
marching up with a swagger to her master, dashed a German
looking-glass on the floor at his feet. She wanted a larger one, for
the glass bestowed on her was half an inch smaller than the gifts to
her companions.

When Ormond was sober, his pride commonly restrained him from allowing
the women to molest his leisure; so he quietly turned from the virago
and ordered her out of the store.

But my lady was not to be appeased by dignity like this. "Ha!"
shrieked the termagant, as she wrenched off her handkerchief. "Ha!"
yelled she, tearing off one sleeve, and then the other. "Ha!" screamed
the fiend, kicking a shoe into one corner, and the other shoe into
another corner. "Ha! Mongo!" roared the beldame, as she stripped every
garment from her body and stood absolutely _naked_ before us, slapping
her wool, cheeks, forehead, breasts, arms, stomach and limbs, and
appealing to Ormond to say where she was deficient in charms, that she
should be slighted half an inch on a looking-glass?

As the Mongo was silent, she strode up to me for an opinion; but,
scarlet with blushes, I dived behind the cloth-chest, and left the
laughing Ormond to gratify the whim of the "_model artiste_."

Years afterwards, I remember seeing an infuriate Ethiopian fling her
infant into the fire because its white father preferred the child of
another spouse. Indeed, I was glad my station at Bangalang did not
make it needful for the preservation of my respectability that I
should indulge in the luxury of _African matrimony_!

* * * * *

But these exhibitions of jealous passion were not excited alone by the
unequal distribution of presents from the liege lord of Bangalang. I
have observed that Ormond's wives took advantage of his carelessness
and age, to see