AFRICA. 75 
two of his friends or relations. Free from 
all the ceremonial of politenefs towards peo- 
ple who were not acquainted even with the 
firft principles of it, I continued what I had 
begun. The favages, who did not compre* 
hend what I was about, appeared very much 
furprifed. They waited in filence for the re- 
fult, and with their eyes followed all my 
movements. The water which frothed in 
the bafon, and which I brufhed over my lips^ 
feemed to them to be the effed: of magic ; 
but, when they faw me apply the razor to my 
muftaches, and the hair difappear fo readily 
from the place I had touched, their aftonifli- 
ment at this prodigy exceeded the power of 
words to exprefs. 
To render it ftill more fenfible to them, and 
to fhew the effedts of it more clofely, I laid 
hold of the chief's krofs at one of the ends, 
and in an inftant made it as fmooth as my 
hand. 
This favage was a man of good fenfe, and 
polTefTed more underftanding than the genera- 
lity of his equals. On the firft view, he 
perceived of what ineftimable value a razor 
would be to him, to fliave the hair from a 
fummer 
