476 Journal of Tiw Mimonaries [May, 



question was harmless, but when, on drinking it, we found an unnatural 

 drowsiness steal over us, we gave ourselves up for lost, and only regretted 

 dying in a distant country so far from our beloved wives and children. 

 In a short time, however, these sleepy effects went off, and our host 

 was then restored to his usual place in our good opinion. 



It was now half-past five o'clock; in two hours the assembly was 

 to meet, so we employed the intervening time in rambling about 

 the country, and entering in our journals as many remarks as possible ; 

 which being concluded for the day, we returned, accompanied by our 

 interpreter, to the dwelling of our friend the chief. Here we partook of 

 a second repast, consisting of thick slices of a species of bread toasted 

 on one side, and spotted with dabs of a powerfully odoriferous oil, which, 

 as our interpreter whispered us, was called " buttered toast." A kind 

 of fluid, too, was handed about, brought in parcels from a distant 

 country called the Borough ; it was, however, so nauseous and innocent of 

 strength, that at first we mistook it for ditch-water. During this strange 

 repast, the chieftain's wife accompanied by three young savages entered 

 the room, bedizened, like all barbarous tribes, in the most gorgeous 

 colours. On her appearance we were formally introduced to her — a cere- 

 mony which takes place as follows. The woman advances towards you 

 holding her husband's hand, and on reaching within a yard of your 

 person, makes a sudden brisk duck or bob towards the ground, upon 

 which you are expected to rise and do the same. Unfortunately, from 

 ignorance of the custom, I advanced too close towards my hostess, and 

 bending my head forward, as I had observed the interpreter to do, I 

 came in contact with liers, and such was the concussion that I knocked 

 hei- three paces backwards. The young savages, her oft'spring, instantly 

 Bet up a shout, for which the father very properly rebuked them, 

 repeating to himself certain condemnatory epithets applied to his own 

 eyes — which, according to our interpreter, indicated exceeding wrath. 



By this time it was near seven o'clock (the hour appointed for the 

 synod or convocation of barbarians), so that the room in which we sate, 

 called a drawing-room from the circumstance of its being filled with 

 rude daubs or drawings, began to be lit up ; and in a few minutes the 

 furniture, consisting for the most part of curiously carved pieces of wood 

 called chairs, with black bottoms and brass tacks, were all removed, and 

 every one anxiously awaited the approach of company. Presently, 

 *' a double knock" — so called because it consists of three small taps — 

 was heard, and the slave or servant whom we have before described, 

 rushed head-foremost into the room — bawling at the top of a voice (by 

 no means musical) " Mister Muggins." He then ushered into the 

 room a smart squat little savage with a jolly red face, shaped like the 

 stern of a Dutch man-of-war, that is to say, narrow at top and broad at 

 bottom. The ornaments of this creature were curious. He wore a 

 prodigious thick white thing, fastened round what little neck it had 

 pleased God to give him, and adorned with a sparkling piece of metal 

 called " a coach," or, as our interpreter afterwards informed us, " a 

 broach." Half-way down his person there seemed to be a division of 

 garments, distinguished by immense pieces of gold or brass ; at his knees 

 were four large knots or bunches of black strings ; silk, curiously 

 tapestried with clocks and similar hieroglyphics, encircled his calves ; 

 -while his feet (vast masses of unshaped flesh) were clad in a black 

 leathern drapery called " bumps," or, as I afterwards learned, *' pumps." 



