Well, up
river C. goes in the canoe, and fetches up on a floating stump in
the river, and staves a hole you could put your head in, in the bow
of the said canoe. C. returns it to B. in this condition. B.
returns it to A. in this condition. A. sues B. before native chief,
saying he lent his canoe to B. on the understanding, always implied
in African loans, that it was to be returned in the same state as
when lent, fair wear and tear alone excepted. B. tries first to get
C. to pay for the canoe, and for the rent of the canoe on top, as a
compensation for the delay in bringing down his, B's., trade. C.
calls B. the illegitimate offspring of a greenhouse-lizard, and
pleads further that the floating log was a force majeure - an act of
God, and denies liability on all counts. B. then pleads this as his
own defence in the case of A. and B. (authorities cited in support
of this view); he also pleads he is not liable, because C. is a free
man, and not his slave.
The case went on for a week; the judge was drunk for five days in
his attempt to get his head clear. The decision finally was that B.
was to pay A. full compensation. B. v. C. is still pending.
The laws against adultery are, theoretically, exceedingly severe.
The punishment is death, and this is sometimes carried out. The
other day King Bell in Cameroon flogged one of his wives to death,
and the German Government have deposed and deported him, for you
cannot do that sort of thing with impunity within a stone's throw of
a Government head-quarters. But as a general rule all along the
Coast the death penalty for murder or adultery is commuted to a
fine, or you can send a substitute to be killed for you, if you are
rich. This is frequently done, because it is cheaper, if you have a
seedy slave, to give him to be killed in your stead than to pay a
fine which is often enormous.
The adultery itself is often only a matter of laying your hand, even
in self-defence from a virago, on a woman - or brushing against her
in the path. These accusations of adultery are, next to witchcraft,
the great social danger to the West Coast native, and they are often
made merely from motives of extortion or spite, and without an atom
of truth in them.
It is customary for a chief to put his wives frequently to ordeal on
this point, and this is almost always done after there has been a
big devil-making, or a dance, which his family have been gracing
with their presence. The usual method of applying the ordeal is by
boiling palm-oil - a pot is nearly filled with the oil, which is
brought to the boil over a fire; when it is seething, the woman to
be tried is brought out in front of it.
