They make
it in the shape of a bee-hive.
Their reason for moving about continually, is that they may get food.
They look for it, wherever they go, digging up roots, and grubbing up
grubs, and searching the hollows of the trees for _opossums_. (Of these
strange animals more shall soon be mentioned.)
The women are the most ill-treated creatures in the world. The men beat
them on their heads whenever they please, and cover them with bruises. A
gentleman once saw a poor black woman crying bitterly. When he asked her
what was the matter, she told him that her husband was going to beat her
for having broken his pipe. The gentleman went to the husband, and
entreated him to forgive his "gin" (for that is the name for a _wife_ or
_woman_). But the man declared he would not forgive her, unless a new
pipe was given to him. The gentleman could not promise one to the black
man, as there were no pipes to be had in that place. The next morning the
poor gin appeared with a broken arm, her cruel husband having beaten her
with a thick stick.
The miserable gins are not _beaten_ only; they are _half starved_; for
their husbands will give them no food, and _they_--poor things--cannot
fish or hunt, or shoot; they have nothing but the roots they dig up, and
the grubs, and lizards, and snakes they find on the ground. Their looks
show how wretchedly they fare; for while the men are often strong and
tall, the women are generally thin, and bent, and haggard.
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