y in the bush,
about 200 yards or so distant from that of the chief. Women
are never seen in an Azande village, the pathway to their own
being kept secret from all outsiders. This system while being
something like that observed by the Arabs, has the important
distinction that the women are not shut up. They are free
to come and go and do what they like, except visit the men's
village. In common with the entire native population of
Central Africa, the custom among the Zande is that the men
do no work that is not connected with the chase or the
manufacture of implements. All agriculture is carried on by
the women.[275]

From the time of engagement until marriage a young lady is
required to maintain the strictest seclusion. Whenever friends
call upon her parents she is expected to retire to the inner
apartments, and in all her actions and words guard her conduct
with careful solicitude. She must use a close sedan whenever
she visits her relations, and in her intercourse with her
brothers and the domestics in the household maintain great
reserve. Instead of having any opportunity to form those
friendships and acquaintances with her own sex which among
ourselves become a source of much pleasure at the time and
advantage in after life, the Chinese maiden is confined to the
circle of her relations and her immediate neighbors. She has
few of the pleasing remembrances and associations that are
usually connected with school-day life, nor has she often the
ability or opportunity to correspond by letter with girls of
her own age. Seclusion at this time of life, and the custom
of crippling the feet, combine to confine women in the house
almost as much as the strictest laws against their appearing
abroad; for in girlhood, as they know only a few persons
except relatives, and can make very few acquaintances after
marriage their circle of friends contracts rather than
enlarges as life goes on. This privacy impels girls to learn
as much of the world as they can, and among the rich their
curiosity is gratified through maid-servants, match-makers,
peddlers, visitors, and others.[276]

The world of white civilization is intellectually rich because it has
amassed a rich fund of general ideas, and has organized these into
specialized bodies of knowledge, and has also developed a special
techniqu