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Page 9
As our manners are simple, our luxuries are few. The dress of both
sexes is nearly the same. It generally consists of a long piece of
callico, or muslin, wrapped loosely round the body, somewhat in the
form of a highland plaid. This is usually dyed blue, which is our
favourite colour. It is extracted from a berry, and is brighter and
richer than any I have seen in Europe. Besides this, our women of
distinction wear golden ornaments; which they dispose with some
profusion on their arms and legs. When our women are not employed with
the men in tillage, their usual occupation is spinning and weaving
cotton, which they afterwards dye, and make it into garments. They
also manufacture earthen vessels, of which we have many kinds. Among
the rest tobacco pipes, made after the same fashion, and used in the
same manner, as those in Turkey[C].
Our manner of living is entirely plain; for as yet the natives are
unacquainted with those refinements in cookery which debauch the
taste: bullocks, goats, and poultry, supply the greatest part of their
food. These constitute likewise the principal wealth of the country,
and the chief articles of its commerce. The flesh is usually stewed in
a pan; to make it savoury we sometimes use also pepper, and other
spices, and we have salt made of wood ashes. Our vegetables are mostly
plantains, eadas, yams, beans, and Indian corn. The head of the family
usually eats alone; his wives and slaves have also their separate
tables. Before we taste food we always wash our hands: indeed our
cleanliness on all occasions is extreme; but on this it is an
indispensable ceremony. After washing, libation is made, by pouring
out a small portion of the food, in a certain place, for the spirits
of departed relations, which the natives suppose to preside over their
conduct, and guard them from evil. They are totally unacquainted with
strong or spirituous liquours; and their principal beverage is palm
wine. This is gotten from a tree of that name by tapping it at the
top, and fastening a large gourd to it; and sometimes one tree will
yield three or four gallons in a night. When just drawn it is of a
most delicious sweetness; but in a few days it acquires a tartish and
more spirituous flavour: though I never saw any one intoxicated by it.
The same tree also produces nuts and oil. Our principal luxury is in
perfumes; one sort of these is an odoriferous wood of delicious
fragrance: the other a kind of earth; a small portion of which thrown
into the fire diffuses a most powerful odour[D]. We beat this wood
into powder, and mix it with palm oil; with which both men and women
perfume themselves.
In our buildings we study convenience rather than ornament. Each
master of a family has a large square piece of ground, surrounded with
a moat or fence, or enclosed with a wall made of red earth tempered;
which, when dry, is as hard as brick. Within this are his houses to
accommodate his family and slaves; which, if numerous, frequently
present the appearance of a village. In the middle stands the
principal building, appropriated to the sole use of the master, and
consisting of two apartments; in one of which he sits in the day with
his family, the other is left apart for the reception of his friends.
He has besides these a distinct apartment in which he sleeps, together
with his male children. On each side are the apartments of his wives,
who have also their separate day and night houses. The habitations of
the slaves and their families are distributed throughout the rest of
the enclosure. These houses never exceed one story in height: they are
always built of wood, or stakes driven into the ground, crossed with
wattles, and neatly plastered within, and without. The roof is
thatched with reeds. Our day-houses are left open at the sides; but
those in which we sleep are always covered, and plastered in the
inside, with a composition mixed with cow-dung, to keep off the
different insects, which annoy us during the night. The walls and
floors also of these are generally covered with mats. Our beds consist
of a platform, raised three or four feet from the ground, on which are
laid skins, and different parts of a spungy tree called plaintain. Our
covering is calico or muslin, the same as our dress. The usual seats
are a few logs of wood; but we have benches, which are generally
perfumed, to accommodate strangers: these compose the greater part of
our household furniture. Houses so constructed and furnished require
but little skill to erect them. Every man is a sufficient architect
for the purpose. The whole neighbourhood afford their unanimous
assistance in building them and in return receive, and expect no other
recompense than a feast.
As we live in a country where nature is prodigal of her favours, our
wants are few and easily supplied; of course we have few manufactures.
They consist for the most part of calicoes, earthern ware, ornaments,
and instruments of war and husbandry. But these make no part of our
commerce, the principal articles of which, as I have observed, are
provisions. In such a state money is of little use; however we have
some small pieces of coin, if I may call them such. They are made
something like an anchor; but I do not remember either their value or
denomination. We have also markets, at which I have been frequently
with my mother. These are sometimes visited by stout mahogany-coloured
men from the south west of us: we call them Oye-Eboe, which term
signifies red men living at a distance. They generally bring us
fire-arms, gunpowder, hats, beads, and dried fish. The last we
esteemed a great rarity, as our waters were only brooks and springs.
These articles they barter with us for odoriferous woods and earth,
and our salt of wood ashes. They always carry slaves through our land;
but the strictest account is exacted of their manner of procuring them
before they are suffered to pass. Sometimes indeed we sold slaves to
them, but they were only prisoners of war, or such among us as had
been convicted of kidnapping, or adultery, and some other crimes,
which we esteemed heinous. This practice of kidnapping induces me to
think, that, notwithstanding all our strictness, their principal
business among us was to trepan our people. I remember too they
carried great sacks along with them, which not long after I had an
opportunity of fatally seeing applied to that infamous purpose.
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