FL661539

may be the intended husbands task, her
under his protection an she is old enough
to marry. Perhaps he entrusts her to a wife
he has already. For polygamy is quite common.
It is nothing unusual for a black man to have
2 or 3 wives or even half a dozen. But whether
betrothed or such in her infancy, or whether
her intended live or not when she arrives
at womanhood she is most arbitrarily dis-
posed of as someone's wife without any
question put to her; she has not even the
(To marry from love must then be a rare thing
choice of refusing an offer. [word crossed out] In most cases
the young woman becomes the wife of an old
man. A young man has but rarely a chance
of marrying a young wife, except circumstances
should come to pass that no elderly man can
establish a prior claim, or except he
go, accompanied by some friends and
attack a camp of another tribe and by
force obtain a wife. Of course he will
not always inquire whether the woman
has a husband already or not. If she
has one he may make an attempt by
a reprisal to regain his wife but this