CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 125 
one of his men to take the fetiche piece, as we learnt, for 
the Ganga or priest; and they seemed to know the best 
piece, carrying off one of the hind quarters. 
The two prominent features, in their moral character and 
social state, seem to be the indolence of the men and the 
degradation of the women; the latter being considered as 
perfect slaves, whose bodies are at the entire disposal of 
their fathers or husbands, and may be transferred by either 
of them, how and when they may please. The intriguing 
with a man’s wife without his knowledge is however punished 
by a fine of two slaves; and if the adulterer cannot pay, 
the husband seems to be authorised to murder him. 
Both men and women rise at daylight, and after washing 
their skins, those who pretend to gentility rub_ their 
shoulders and bodies to the waist with palm oil, which, 
though it keeps their skins smooth, gives even to the women, 
who otherwise have not the same natural effluvia as the 
men, a most disagreeable smell. 
There are much fewer mulattoes among them than might 
be expected from their intercourse with Europeans, two 
only having yet been seen by us. 
The mode of salutation is by gently clapping the hands, 
and an inferior at the same time goes on his knees and 
kisses the bracelet on the superior’s ancle. 
