3^0 J A iM A I C A. 



expert divers, and are able to continue an incredible length of time 

 under water; hence too they incline to fix their dwelhngs on the 

 fea coaft, or the banks of the rivers, to fave themfelv.es the trouble 

 of a long walk. . , . 



In thele climates the brute creation fly to ihelter from the rain ; 

 the Negroes likewife avoid it with extreme anxiety; if they are 

 catched in a fhower they clafp their arms over their heads to d(.fend 

 them, run with all the fpeed they can to the neareft retreat, and 

 feem to groan at every drop that falls upon them ; to preferve their 

 bodies the better from it, they rub them over with palm oili 

 as the aquatic birds hefmear their plumage with the oily liquor 

 exprefied f:om the glands which nature has provided them 

 with. Their women are delivered with little or no labour; they 

 have theretoi'e no more occafion for midwivet., than the feiBale 

 oran-outang, or any other wild animal. A woman brings forth her 

 child in a quarter of an hour, goes the fame day to the fea, and 

 waflies herfelf. Some have even been known to bring forth twins 

 v/ithout a (hriek, or a fcream ; and it is leldom they are confined 

 above two, or, at mofl, three days. 



Immediately before her labour fhe is condud^ed to the fea fide 

 or a river, followed by a number of little children, who throw all 

 manner of ordure and excrement at her in the way, after which 

 {he is W-^fhed with great care. Without this cleanly ceremony, 

 the Negroes are perfuaded that either the mother, the child, or 

 one of the parents, will die during the period of lying-in. Thus 

 they feem exempted from the curfe inflided upon Eve and her 

 daughters, " I will greatly multiply thy forrow ; in forrow (halt 

 " thou bring forth children." 



Medicine. 



The origin of the invention of medicine is intirely unknown; 

 fome afciibe it to chance, others to obfervation on the coudud of 

 brute animals; both probably combined. We know that the Nor- 

 thern Indians difcovered that herb, which is an antidote to the 

 venom of the rattle fnake, by the latter means. Brutes are bo- 

 tanifts by inftindt ; whether man in his rude ftate poflefles any 



fimilar 



