286 NARRATIVE. 



the filth and nakedness of their children ought at least to be 

 excluded. 



For the medicines used by the Mandingoes, and for their 

 vegetable food, I must refer my readers to the Botanical Appendix. 

 Their manner of eating is like that of other blacks, clawing out of 

 the same calabash with their fingers. Most of them profess 

 Mahometanism, and speak Arabic, using the ancient form of salu- 

 tation, " Peace to thee," now banished among the eastern Arabs \ 

 They are tall, slight, but well made, and thovigh not so ugly as the 

 Fantees, are by no means a handsome race, when compared to the 

 Joloffs. The natives of both countries wear very large cloths, or 

 pagnes. The superior classes of Mandingoes, and the travelling 

 Moors of the interior', frequently assume a turban, and this, added 

 to their full and graceful pagnes, their red sandals, their elegantly 

 shaped scimitars, and their light bows and arrows, gives them a 

 very picturesque appearance. The older Alcades wear a large, 

 pointed, grass hat, looking like a portion from the thatched roof 

 of their huts, while the younger chiefs have a white cap, beauti- 

 fully embroidered with coloured cottons, in diamonds, stars, and 

 other devices. The higher class of women generally wear a short 

 shift, and two pagnes of equal size ; their gold ornaments are 

 numerous and massy, their ear-rings especially, which are often of 

 such a weight, as to require a string passing over the head to 

 support them, as they would otherwise tear the ears. Natives of 

 all shades, and both countries, assume very dark blue for mourn- 

 ing, and lay aside their ornaments. 



The mulatto women, who are mostly Joloffs from Goree, are some 

 of them handsome, and pretend to approach nearer to European 

 manners and customs than those of other parts of Africa ; at the 

 same time, they reUgiously preserve their own superstitions and 



' See Burckhardt. ' See Plate 9. 



