GLIMPSES OF NEGEO LIFE. 629 



ring smiles, by the action of the muscles of the cheek, the ring 

 and lip outside it are dragged back and thrown above the 

 eyebrows. The nose is seen through the middle of the ring, 

 and the exposed teeth show how carefully they have been 

 chipped to look like those of a cat or crocodile. When told it 

 makes them ugly, they had better throw it away, the Manganja 

 ladies return the same answer as their European sisters, when 

 fault is found with a monstrous chignon or an extravagant 

 crinoline : ' Really, it is the fashion.' 



On the coast of Gruinea, in the low delta of the Niger, we 

 find the Negro inhabiting a country very different from the 

 arid wastes in which the Bushman roams, more like a wild 

 animal than a human creature. Here, instead of vast plains 

 thirsting for water, numerous canals and creeks intersect the 

 swampy soil and render the canoe as necessary to the existence 

 of the people as the camel is to that of the Bedouins of the 

 desert. The canoe furnishes the Bonnian with provisions from 

 the interior of the country, it also serves to transport the 

 palm oil which he exchanges for the commodities of Europe. 

 This traffic, which has supplanted the old slave trade, has now 

 lasted many years, but as yet the humanizing influence of 

 commerce has made itself but little felt among the Bonnians 

 whose intercourse with the white customers has only served to 

 engraft some of the worst vices of civilized man on the brutality 

 of the savage. Trade has indeed awakened in them the spirit of 

 speculation, it has sharpened their intellect and rendered tlieir 

 manners less barbarous than those of their neighbours ; but it 

 has also taught them all the arts of deception and rendered 

 them accomplished cheats, thieves, and liars. Of a passionate 

 character, a trifle will provoke the most violent explosions of 

 rage, which often lead to the use of the knife or the gun. 

 King Peppel, one of the last sovereigns of this miserable little 

 realm, would, without ceremony, send a bullet, the fatal mes- 

 senger of his wrath, among the native crew of a canoe that was 

 in his way or somewhat tardy in paying him the respect due to 

 royalty. 



The priest, conjurer, or medicine man still preserves an un- 

 shaken authority over the superstitious minds of the Bonnians, 

 and appears most despicable in the character of a judge, for his 

 verdict always inclines to the side of the party which offers 



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