As
a rule, the husband cannot sell his wife's children whilst her
brother may dispose of them as he pleases--the vox populi
exclaims, "What! is the man to go hungry when he can trade off
his sister's brats?"
The strong-minded of London and New York have not yet succeeded
in thoroughly organizing and popularizing their clubs; the belles
sauvages of the Gaboon have. There is a secret order, called
"Njembe," a Rights of Woman Association, intended mainly to
counterbalance the Nda of the lords of creation, which will
presently be described. Dropped a few years ago by the men, it
was taken up by their wives, and it now numbers a host of
initiated, limited only by heavy entrance fees. This form of
freemasonry deals largely in processions, whose preliminaries and
proceedings are kept profoundly secret. At certain times an old
woman strikes a stick upon an "Orega" or crescent-shaped drum,
hollowed out of a block of wood; hearing this signal, the
worshipful sisterhood, bedaubed, by way of insignia, with red and
white chalk or clay, follow her from the village to some remote
nook in the jungle, where the lodge is tiled.
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