CO129-470 - Public Offices - 1921 — Page 541

now, regardless of the law promulgated in 1910 definitely

affirming its illegality and attaching penalties to be impong

in the event of breach, it remains widespread and is not in

538

general opinion a crime.

Although the practice was not entirely limited

to the purchase of infants - cages here occurred in which a

debtor has sold himself and his whole family into slavery

-

yet in the vast majority of cases the subject of sile waS

is a female child,

The conditions of the slavery thus cred

ж

if so it must be styled,/very different from those rocompany,

slavery in, for example, the West Indies or the former Amerię

colonies. In the first place the child purchased is nearly

always employed to do domautic service, clothei, fed and trek

as one of the family.

Secondly, on reaching marriageable

she is married by her purchaser to someone selected by him;

custor not repugnant in a country in which warriages are arran

regardless of the likes and dislikes of the parties thereto.

Finally, the child sold being always bought by a person of

wealth from one of lass, la thus generally better fad than

would be if she remained at home, and, domestic duties baing 1

burdansome/