.35-* 



TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



country, whatever is its condition, has been imprefled by 

 Providence, for wife ends, in the breafts of all nations; from 

 Lapland to the Line, you find it written precifely in the 

 Came character,. 



There are twelve villages, or towns, in Dahalac, little dif- 

 ferent in fize from Dobelew ; each has a plantation of doom- 

 trees round it, which furnifh the only manufacture in the 

 iiland. The leaves of this tree, when dried, are of a glofTy 

 white, which might very eafily be miftaken for fattin ; of 

 thefe they make bafkets of furpriiing beauty and neatnefs, 

 {taining part of the leaves with red or black, and working 

 them into figures very artificially. I have known fome of 

 thefe, refembling ftraw-baikets, continue full of water for 

 twenty-four hours, without one drop coming through. They 

 fell thefe at Loheia and Jidda, the largeft of them for four 

 commefh, or fixpence. This is the employment, or rather 

 amufement of the men who flay at home ; for they work 

 but very moderately at it, and all of them indeed take fpe- 

 cial care, not to prejudice their health by any kind of fatigue 

 from induftry, 



People of the better fort, fuch as the Shekh and his rela- 

 tions, men privileged to be idle, and never expofed to the 

 fun, are of a brown complexion, not darker than the inha- 

 bitants of Loheia. But the common fort employed in fifh- 

 ing, and thofe who go conftantly to fea, are not indeed 

 black, but red, and little darker than the colour of new 

 mohogany. There are, befides, blacks among them, who 

 come from Arkeeko and the Main, but even thefe, upon 

 marrying, grow lefs black in a generation. 



i The 



