288 SAVAGE MANNERS. [1698. 



resembles our Skirrets.^ They roast it, and oftentimes make 

 it into Past, which is their Bread, and somewhat like our 

 Chesnut. They eat raw Flesh and Fish, finding tliem, it 

 seems, better, and more savoury so, than when they are 

 boil'd or fry'd : Nay, they trouble tlie Kitchin so little, that 

 when they find a dead Beast they immediately embowel 

 him, sweet or stinking, and having press'd the Guts a little 

 between tlieir Fingers, they eat the remaining Tripe with 

 the greatest Appetite that can be. 



These People are almost all of that Stature which we 

 call midling. Their Noses are flat, their Fyes round, their 

 Mouths wide, their Ears the same, and their Foreheads low. 

 They have very little Beard, and that whicli they have is 

 black and woolly. Their Hair is extreamly frizled. They 

 are not born very Tawny, but they quickly besmear them- 

 selves so with Soot and Grease, or some sort of Oil, that 

 they become black as Jet, upon which they lay themselves 

 on their Backs expos'd to the Sun, that the Colour may 

 better penetrate and dry in. This Embellishment renders 

 them so noisom, especially when it is hot, that one cannot 

 come near them without being ready to Vomit. 



In Summer they go all naked, except that part which the 

 Men put into a Case made on purpose for it, and which 

 hangs to a thong of Leather that is ty'd about their Eeins. 

 In Winter they generally cover their Shoulders with a Sheep 

 Skin. They never wear anything upon their Heads. Their 

 Hair is all frizled, greasie, and powder'd with Dust, and, 

 moreover, matted together in Tufts, to each of which hangs 

 a piece of Glass, or some small bit of Copper or other Metal. 

 They pass thro' the lower part of their Ears, which are broad 

 and large, a round Stick of the length of an Inch, and much 

 thicker than one's Thumb. About this Larding-pin they 



1 Skirret = Slum sisarum, the " siser" of Varro and Columella, a plant 

 abundantly cultivated in Europe at the present day. ( Vide Pickering, 

 Physical Hist, nf Man, p. 397.) 



