But the Negro is not beyond the influences of civilization and Christianization. Hundreds of thousands have perished in the cruel swamps of Africa; hundreds of thousands have been devoured by wild beasts of the forests; hundreds of thousands have perished before the steady and murderous columns of stronger tribes; hundreds of thousands have perished from fever, small-pox, and cutaneous diseases; hundreds of thousands have been sold into slavery; hundreds of thousands have perished in the "middle-passage;" hundreds of thousands have been landed in this New World in the West: and yet hundreds of thousands are still swarming in the low and marshy lands of Western Africa. Poor as this material is, out of it we have made, here in the United States, six million citizens; and out of this cast-away material of Africa, God has raised up many children. To the candid student of ethnography, it must be conclusive that the Negro is but the most degraded and disfigured type of the primeval African. And still, with all his interminable woes and wrongs, the Negro on the west coast of Africa, in Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as in the southern part of the United States, shows that centuries of savagehood and slavery have not drained him of all the elements of his manhood. History furnishes us with abundant and specific evidence of his capacity to civilize and Christianize. We shall speak of this at length in a subsequent chapter. FOOTNOTES: [63] See Keith Johnson's Map of Africa, 1863. [64] Savage Africa, pp. 403, 404. [65] Savage Africa, p. 400. [66] Savage Africa, p. 412. [67] Savage Africa, p. 430. CHAPTER VII. AFRICAN IDIOSYNCRASIES. PATRIARCHAL GOVERNMENT.--CONSTRUCTION OF VILLAGES.--NEGRO ARCHITECTURE.--ELECTION OF KINGS.--CORONATION CEREMONY.--SUCCESSION.--AFRICAN QUEENS.--LAW, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL.--PRIESTS.--THEIR FUNCTIONS.--MARRIAGE.--WARFARE.--AGRICULTURE.--MECHANIC ARTS.--BLACKSMITHS. All the tribes on the continent of Africa are under, to a greater or less degree, the patriarchal form of government. It is usual for writers on Africa to speak of "kingdoms" and "empires;" but these kingdoms are called so more by compliment than with any desire to convey the real meaning that we get when the empire of Germany or kingdom of Spain is spoken of. The patriarchal government is the most ancient in Africa. It is true that great kingdoms have risen in Africa; but they were the result of devastating wars rather than the creation of political genius or governmental wisdom.