my eldest sister as a wife; and in consequences when
she got sickness surely he never attended her. After
she died also he did the same condition.

After we buried her, my wife gone that part of
village, he call her and say, "I must marry you!"
Also he require my young sister, to marry both of
them.

So he lured my wife in his house, and said that if
you wouldn't low [allow] her to marry her, he must
put her in Iron.

The applicant here gets into a maze of
distraction amidst English pronouns, and had
originally written this sentence: "if you
wouldn't low me to marry you."

Surely he did the same condition! He was put her
in Iron four days, and also in Wood three days.

He never gave her something to eat or drinking.
God helped her to release from this trouble; also he
took me to his house again, that if you wouldn't low
[allow] her to be kept there.

He flogged her very severely; and then surely he
did the same condition with the same flogging very
severely, and she got pains very bad. After that she
run away to Bush, six days. She never eat or drinking,
and God help me to find her, and I run with her
in the night to your court.

Summon him! That I never see such a thing in
this world. That a man married his sister—-

This means the young sister of Karunpah,
whom he seems quietly, and without
opposition, to have taken possession of.

—and also take Brother in Law's wife to married.

Married both of them! This his my case.
I summon this Gentleman in Court. And in so
doing I shall be greatly conferred upon.
I am, sir,

Your most obt. servt.,

KARUNPAH.

The reader will notice that there are very
few faults in orthography in this letter;
which is, in that respect, quite an average
production. The handwriting, too, is always
remarkably clear and good. On the whole,
therefore, Mr. Karunpah states his grievances
in a very intelligible manner, and
considering the peculiar method of courting,
adopted by Groarkoo, it can scarcely be
wondered that Mrs. Karunpah objected to it,
and refused to be lured away from her
husband. The phrases, "God helped her to
release," and "God help me to find her," are
not to be taken as evidence of the Christianity
of the plaintiff. They are merely forms used
by the writer.

The opening sentence, "I beg leave to
acquaint your honour to say that wouldn't be no
offences," is a preliminary civility which
reminds one of a bow from an Irish beggar,
who flourishes the phantom of a hat. The
phrase is much varied, and shows considerable
versatility in the writers. It sometimes
appears thus: "With much glad of to
referring you; to know," or "Having the
power of stating you; to say," or, "With
much melancholy of to remitting you this my
humble request."

Occasionally, however, a writer goes
straight to the point as in the following:

SIR—I beg to call your attention about the Ceeda
Trees between me and Mr. John Tandow.

The reader would naturally conclude, from
this commencement, that the writer was
about to complain of some obstruction which
prevented him from getting so good a view of
the person referred to as Mr. John Tandow,
as his affection for that intelligent native
led him to desire. But, in the next few lines,
he puts forth a claim for remuneration for
the said trees, which appear to have been growing
on his land, and were cut down, carried
away, and "sawerd up" by the said John
Tandow.

The plaintiff, Luacoe Praoe, describes him-
self as in "a state of cripple," and yet winds
up with a petition for security, and an order,
and a day, on which he may "settle " Mr.
John Tandow; but, as his petition appears to
have been granted, it seems probable that his
intentions were not so sanguinary as the
concluding phrase, "give me a day to settle him,"
would lead us to imagine.

In general we find nothing more
demonstrative than "yours truly" or your "obedient
servant" at the termination of a letter of
grievances; sometimes, however, there is an
appeal for sympathy or help, as in this:

Let not your poor servant's solicitations be in vain,
but let it be effectual.

With what an artful piece of flattery does
Eccuah Abbooayuah close her case!

But he don't know that our protector [is] like you;
you will not hear it.

This is your poor maid servant's request and her
wishes.

Another lady who has got into trouble
concludes with:

This is my statement.

Sir, your Honour,
I have the honour,
My dear Sir,
Yours obedient poor woman,

ACCOOAH AHMRAPUAH.

The women who make their appearance in
court are sometimes slaves and pawns; but,
more frequently, they appear under somewhat
peculiar circumstances. The natives
have a custom by which the family of a man
or woman who has died through the
instrumentality of another, can claim to hold him
or her as a slave, unless redeemed by
the payment of so many ounces of gold-
dust. But it happens very seldom indeed
that one native murders another; the ordinary
termination of a violent quarrel in
Africa being not a murder but a suicide. For
example, two women—for the women mostly
originate these quarrels, though a man may
afterwards sacrifice himself—quarrel,
overwhelm one another with invectives and