NATIVE FASHIONS. 419 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



WE made a little detour to the southward, in order 

 to get provisions in a cheaper market. This led us 

 along the rivulet called Tamba, where we found the 

 people, who had not been visited so frequently by 

 the slave-traders as the rest, rather timid and very 

 civil. It was agreeable to get again among the 

 uncont am mated, and to see the natives look at us 

 without that air of superciliousness, which is so un- 

 pleasant and common in the beaten track. The same 

 olive colour prevailed. They file their teeth to a point, 

 which makes the smile of the women frightful, as it 

 reminds one of the grin of an alligator. The inhabitants 

 throughout this country exhibit as great a variety of 

 taste, as appears on the surface of society amongst our- 

 selves. Many of the men are dandies ; their shoulders 

 are always wet with the oil dropping from their lubricated 

 hair, and everything about tnem is ornamented in one 

 way or another. Some thrum a musical instrument the 

 livelong day, and, when they wake at night, proceed at 

 once to their musical performance. Many of these musi- 

 cians are too poor to nave iron keys to their instrument, 

 but make them of bamboo, and persevere, though no one 

 hears the music but themselves. Others try to appear 

 warlike by never going out of their huts, except with a 

 load of bows and arrows, or a gun ornamented with a strip 

 of hide for every animal they have shot ; and others 

 never go anywhere without a canary in a cage. Ladies 

 may be seen carefully tending little lapdogs, which are 

 intended to be eaten. Their villages are generally in 

 forests, and composed of groups of irregularly planted 

 brown huts, with banana and cotton trees, and tobacco 

 growing around. There is also at every hut a high stage 

 erected for drying manioc roots and meal, and elevated 

 cages to hold domestic fowls. Round baskets are laid on 

 the thatch of the huts, for the hens to lay in, and on the 

 arrival of strangers, men, women, and children ply their 

 calling as hucksters, with a great deal of noisy haggling ; 

 all their transactions are conducted with civil banter and 

 good temper. 



My men, having the meat of the oxen which we slaugh- 

 tered from time to time for sale, were entreated to exchange 



