I40 ^ TRAVELS IN 
burgh, when they go Into the fields to weed 
their pulfe and their tobacco. 
The acute pains which I experienced In my 
eyes and throat, and the dread of experiencing 
others ftill more dangerous, induced me alfo 
to life fome precautions. It was not, like my 
people, to flielter my head ; for my hat, flap- 
ped and clofely ftuck round with oftrich fea- 
thers, was in that refped a fufficient defence * 
hut I wiflied to make a fcreen to preferve my 
eyes from the dazzling reverberation of the fun, 
and that might ferve at the fame time to keep 
off thofe clouds of cauftic duft by which my 
face was ulcerated. 
With this view, I formed of wire the fkele- 
ton of a fmall umbrella, which I covered with 
a handkerchief, and which, being fufEciently 
light that it could in no manner fatigue me, 
became exceedingly ufeful. My people thought 
it fo comm.odious, that they all wifhed to imi- 
tate it ; and, changing the form of the fkins 
which, they had placed upon their head?, they 
transformed them into umbrellas. Thefe ar- 
ticles were awkwardly m^de, I allow; but 
they had their advantage, and were a grea^ 
refource to us on our journey. 
Some 
