10 MEMOIR OF THE LIFE 
society is very limited and monotonous, and their wishes are 
confined principally to making money ; in which many fail. At 
Cape Coast, the small white shells which we use for orna- 
menting horses’ bridles are given in exchange as coin; they 
are called cowries: a thousand of them are worth about a 
guelder, in the interior they are worth more: we have with 
us whole sacks of them. Gold-dust also appears at first a 
very curious medium of exchange; it is used especially in 
Cape Coast and Accra, where it is washed from the sand of 
the river banks which flows through the town. Every one of 
the market people carries a small pair of gold-scales: with 
which he weighs out for a silver-groschen, or perhaps for a 
sechser, its worth of gold-dust: they then take these very 
small grains with them, wrapped up in a piece of rag. All 
these market people are natives, and sell palm-oil, cocoa-nuts, 
different kinds of fruit, fish, home-woven cotton, &c. The 
clothing of the men consists simply of a napkin round the 
loins; or in addition, a long piece of cloth passed under one 
arm and over the other. They remove it from the shoulder 
when they meet a white man, and lay bare the heart by way 
of salutation. The women have these garments, and others 
in addition. The cloth round their loins is larger, and furnished 
behind with a monstrous bustle: the bigger this is, the more 
respectable is the woman, and the larger her family : in many 
it projects like a saddle. Little children are perfectly naked. 
So soon, however, as a young girl assumes a piece of cloth by 
way of clothing, it is furnished with a bustle, which with time 
is made gradually larger. 
* Although I have at present had no opportunity of admir- 
ing the full splendour of tropical vegetation ; yet many objects 
have fallen in my way which induced me to examine and to 
gather them. I regret very much that I have so many diffi- 
culties to overcome, in reference to my collections, from the 
scanty room on shipboard, and the humidity of the weather. 
If not attended to daily, everything is covered with mould; E 
and even the paper in the chests becomes quite damp. Per- - 
haps, after much pains, I am so fortunate as to get my - 
