THE WESTERN COAST. 
£85 
children tender, and they are much more jealous 
of the chastity of their married than their unmar- 
ried women. Their women cultivate the fields in 
concert, educate their children with great care, 
and exert themselves to acquire and retain the af- 
fection of their husbands. More happy than many 
of their neighbours, they unite elegance with con- 
venience in the construction of their houses, their 
furniture, and domestic utensils, as well as their 
manner of eating. The poverty of their language, 
and the paucity of their ideas, deprive them of the 
pleasures of lively and variegated conversation, and 
this deficiency will not be supplied by the preva- 
lent practice of polygamy. The purity of the air, 
the goodness of the water, the fertility of the soil, 
and the aversion of the natives to war, and to the 
slave-trade, render the country extremely populous. 
Their religion is a kind of idolatry, confused, and 
void of regular principles. Their fetiches change 
with their caprice, and seem to be regarded by 
many as a mere species of household furniture. A 
negro told Villault, that white men worshipped 
God, but black men prayed to the Devil, to avert 
the evil which he caused. When Snoek inquired 
what religion the inhabitants of Cape Monte pro- 
fessed, they answered, that it consisted in obeying 
their chiefs, without troubling themselves about 
what was above them. The sun is the general ob- 
ject of their adoration, but their worship is volun- 
