he concluded, that they had been in the possession of
the Moors, or had been resident at Tudenny. W
The only ceremony that appeared like the act of prayer
was on the occasion of the death of any of the inhabitants,
when their relatives assembled and sat round the corpse.
The burial is unattended with any ceremony. The deceased
are buried in the clothes in which they die, at a small
distance to the south-west of the town.
Adams does not believe that any of the Negroes could
write, as he never saw any of them attempt it; their
accounts appeared to be kept by notching sticks. Almost
all the Moors, on the contrary, are able to write..
Their only physicians are old women, who cure diseases
and wounds by the application of simples. Adams had a
wen on the back of his right hand, the size of a large egg;
which one of the women cured in about a month by rubbing
it and applying a plaister of herbs. (28) They cure the
tooth-ache by the application of a liquid prepared from
roots ; which frequently causes not only the defective tooth
to fall out, but one or two others.
He never saw any of the Negroes blind but such as were
very old; of these, judging from their appearance, he
thinks he has seen some upwards of one hundred years of
age. Children are obliged to support their parents in their
old age; but when old people are childless, there is a house
for their reception, in which they live, four or five in a
room, at the cost of the King.
The only tools which the Negroes appeared to possess
(besides the hoes and chisels previously mentioned) were
knives and small hatchets with which they cut their timber,
and a few other rough instruments of iron which they procured
from the Moors. Adams does not remember ever to
have seen a saw.
Their musical instruments are, 1st, a sort of fife made
of reeds ; 2d, a kind of tambourine covared with goat skin,
within which are ostrich quills laid across in such a manner
that when the skin is struck with the hand the quills jar
against it ; 3d, an instrument which they call bandera,
made of several cocoa-nut shells tied together with thongs
of goat-skin, and covered with the same material; a hole at
the top of the instrument is covered with strings of leather
or tendons, drawn tightly across it, on which the performer
plays with the fingers in the manner of a guitar.
Their principal and favourite amusement is dancing,
which takes place about once a week in the town, when a
hundred dancers or more assemble, men, women and
children, but the greater number men. Whilst they are
engaged in the dance they.sing extremely loud to the music