Exchange of Wives.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2682, 11 December 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

Exchange of Wives.

HTHAXGK CIJHTOMH OF A UIUTIHH imoviscic.

Operation « have lwn concluded in Northern Nigeria, among the cannibal pagan Ir’il/iH in the remote parte ol the Province of Mini, on the Upper Remie, Many of the villages visited/ had never before been seen by a white man. The people, mostly ol the Wurkum tribe, are described an being of the lowest type, every village being ennni- , bal. Worsbijj consists of tho worst ‘ form of fetish. In most eases the entire population is naked, As the patrol proceeded they found the inhabitants all working m their fields fully armed with spear/i and shlchls, A large -meeting of the people decided l not to agree to the terms proposed hy the Hrltfsh as punishment for the killing and eating of seven men, (hi the expiration of twenty-four hours' grace the tome inarched into the town, which was cleared after considerable opposition, Two counter attacks were beaten off, the leading man being shot at eight paces, During the fighting the pagans lost forty killed and twenty wounded, Tim cause of almost all the inter-tri-bal fighting Is Mm women, and the very common practice of taking wives without payment. There exists among certain of the tribes a custom of a regular exchange of wives which leads to many complications, At the same time the married women arc perfectly moral. Those pagans believe in the tranomigratlon of souls, a man being in their view rolloni, of the mime mother after death. An evil man’s soul becomes a wlteh, whoso fate is death hy burning. In Home cases the people worship a deity who, at their religions celebrations, Is represented as armed with a long horn, which ho blows at, intervals. HomeMiiies this deity Is fully clothed, on other occasions naked. One of the pagan deities kills all women who see him. 'Dm patrol had great diflloulty In obtaining guides, owing to minors of previous guides (laving neon eaten.