>4T4 Jamaica. 



extremely reliflVing, and nutritive ; but they come doubly recom- 

 mended by the clcanlinefs of preparation, their cooks ufually wafhing 

 their hands three or four times, whilft they are about it ; I mean the 

 Creole Blacks, and better fort of the Africans; for as to the reft, they 

 ■feed with all the belliality peculiar to the genui'ie breed of Guiney. 

 Cane rats are much in efteem, and, when roafted and (luffed, are faid 

 to have a delicate flavour i but, to Ctc them impaled before the fire 

 with their goggle eyes and whiikers, is enough to turn an European 

 ftomach ; the Creoles wafli their mouths, as foon as they awake in the 

 morning. About noon is their ufual time of balhing, in fome river 

 open to the fun. They firft wet their bodies all over, then roll in the 

 fand, and plunge into the water ; this method ferves to cleanfe their 

 tkins, as well as foap, or a flefli brufli. 



They are all married fin their 'way) to a hufband, or wife, pro 

 tempore, or have other family coimexions, in almoft every parifli 

 throughout the ifland ; fo that one of them, perhaps, has fix or more 

 hufi)ands, or wives, in feveral different places; by this means they 

 find fupport, when their own lands fail them ; and houfesofcall and 

 refreflimcnt, whenever they are upon their travels. Thus, a gene- 

 •al correlj^-ondence is carried on, all over the ifland, amongft the Creole 

 Blacks ; and moft of them become intimately acquainted with all af- 

 fairs of the white inhabitants, public as well as private. In their 

 houfes, they are many of them very neat and cleanly, piquing tbem- 

 lelveson having tolerably good furniture, and other conveniencies. In 

 their care for their children, fome are remarkably exemplary. A Negroe 

 "has been known fo earnefl; and fincere in the tuition of his child, as 

 to pay money out of his own pocket for fmith's work, to keep a 

 truant fon employed, during his apprenticefliip to that bufinefs, that 

 he might not become remifs in acquiring a proper knowledge of it, 

 for want of work. They exercife a kind of fovereignty over their 

 children, which never ceales during life ; chaftizing them fometimes 

 with much feverity ; and feeming to hold filial obedience in ir.uch 

 higher eftimation than conjugal fidelity; perhaps, becaufe of the whole 

 number of wives or hufljands, one only is the objeft ot particular 

 fteady attachment 4 the refl:, although called wives, are only a fort of 

 xjccafional concubines, or drudges, whofe aiTin;ancc the hufband claims 

 in the culture of his land, fale of his produce, and fo oh ; rendering 



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