BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 521 



embroidery on a hot day, Icarcely able to bear them, and little con- 

 fidering how much they injure their conftitutions by a fweltering 

 load of garments, of vvhofe inconvenience they cannot but be fenfible ; 

 ar.d under whole preflure, they cannot but feel the mofl uneafy 

 lenllitions. 



A banyan is the drefs of the mandarins at the courts of China 

 and Japan, of the nobility and gentry at Indoftan and Perfia ; and 

 why it Ihould not be adopted in other hot countries, cati only be 

 attributed to the tyranny of cuftom, which is ever perverfe, and 

 whofe councils refemble the laws of the Medes and Perfians, which 

 altered not. If a Chinefe mandarin was to be crammed into a fuit 

 of Englifli cloaths, he would look like a hog in armour, and feel as 

 much diftrefs. But wrap an Englifhman, under the torrid zone, in a 

 Chinefe banyan, and he would efteem it luxurioufly delightful ; 

 cuftom arbitrarily forbids him to enjoy fo much blifs, and commands 

 him to drefs in the modes of London and Edinbugh. It is not how- 

 ever unwife to borrow fo much from the flifliious of other nations, 

 as we may pra£life ourfelves with equal advantage. To come 

 nearer therefore to Jamaica, let us obferve a little the management 

 of our Spanifli neighbours. All their cloaths are light ; their 

 waiftcoat and breeches areo( Bretagfie linen, and their coat of fome 

 other thin ftufF. IV/gs are not much worn among them ; only the 

 governor and chief officers appearing in them, and that mollly on 

 public occaiions. Neckcloths are likewife very uncommon ; inftead 

 of thefe, the neck of their fliirt is adorned with large gold buttons, 

 or clafps, and thefe are fuffered to hang loofe. On the head, they 

 wear a cap of very fine, thin, and white linen. Others go entirely 

 bare headed, having their hair cut from the nape of the neck 

 upwards. Fans are very commonly worn by the men, made of a 

 thin branch oit.\\Q palmeto, in the form of acrefcent, with a ftick of 

 the fame wood in the middle for a handle. Their women wear a 

 kind of a petticoat, which they call a polleni, made of thin filk, 

 without any lining; and on their body a very thin white jacket; 

 but this is only put on, in what they call their winter, during the 

 rainy feafon ; for, in the hot months, they think it inlupportable. 

 Although this attiie is (o fimplc and loofe, yet it is decent ; ^ot they 

 Vol. II. X X X always 



