CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 181 



Before marriage, the fathers or brothers of a girl prosti- 

 tute her to every man that will pay two fathoms of cloth ; 

 nor does this derogate in any way from her character, or 

 prev<5nt her being afterwards married. The wives are how- 

 ever never trafficked in this manner except to white men of 

 consideration. 



The boys are taken from the mothers as soon as they can 

 walk, and the father sits the whole day with them on a mat. 

 The girls are entirely neglected b}' the father. 



Whenever any thing brings a number of people together, 

 the men immediately light a fire and squat themselves round 

 it in the smoke ; the men and boys together, the women re- 

 maining behind separate. 



The Jicus reUgiosa is planted in all the market places, and 

 is considered here, as it is in the East, a sacred tree; for our 

 people having piled their muskets against one, and some of 

 the points of the bayonets sticking into the bark, a great 

 clamour was raised until they were removed. 



The hoe is their only instrument of husbandry, and is 

 made out of a piece of flat bar iron beat out and stuck into 

 a handle from one to two feet in length, as in the following 

 fiijures 



