"Strike me," said my attendant, "but do not
curse my mother." The same sentiment I found universally to prevail, and
observed in all parts of Africa, that the greatest affront which could be
offered to a Negro, was to reflect on her who gave him birth.
It is not strange, that this sense of filial duty and affection among the
Negroes should be less ardent towards the father than the mother. The
system of polygamy, while it weakens the father's attachment, by dividing
it among the children of different wives, concentrates all the mother's
jealous tenderness to one point, the protection of her own offspring. I
perceived with great satisfaction, too, that the maternal solicitude
extended not only to the growth and security of the person, but also, in
a certain degree, to the improvement of the mind of the infant; for one
of the first lessons in which the Mandingo women instruct their children,
is _the practice of truth_. The reader will probably recollect the case
of the unhappy mother, whose son was murdered by the Moorish banditti, at
Funingkedy, p. 86. - Her only consolation, in her uttermost distress, was
the reflection that the poor boy, in the course of his blameless life,
_had never told a lie_. Such testimony, from a fond mother on such an
occasion, must have operated powerfully on the youthful part of the
surrounding spectators. It was at once a tribute of praise to the
deceased, and a lesson to the living.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 293 of 546
Words from 79771 to 80028
of 148366
