NEGRO BROTHERHOOD. 



381 



and held their merry-making at the door of one 

 of their own huts. Their dances were like those 

 of the African negroes. A ring was formed ; 

 the guitar player sat down in a corner, and 

 began a simple tune, which was accompanied 

 by some favourite song, of which the burthen 

 was often repeated, and frequently some of the 

 verses were extempore, and contained indecent 

 allusions. One man stepped out into the centre 

 of the ring, and danced for some minutes, making 

 use of lascivious attitudes, until he singled out 

 a woman, who then came forwards, and took her 

 turn in movements not less indecent, and thus 

 the amusement continued sometimes until day- 

 break. The slaves would also request to be 

 permitted to dance ; their musical instruments 

 are extremely rude : one of them is a sort of 

 drum, which is formed of a sheep skin, stretched 

 over a piece of the hollowed trunk of a tree ; 

 and another is a large bow with one string, 

 having half of a coco-nut shell or of a small 

 gourd Strang upon it. This is placed against 

 the abdomen, and the string is struck with the 

 ringer, or with a small bit of wood. When two 

 holidays followed each other uninterruptedly, 

 the slaves would continue their noise until day- 

 break. 



I have now to enter upon an affair which gave 

 me much trouble. The lands belonging to the 

 negro brotherhood of Olinda were verv conve- 



