HARVEST SCENE. 
61 
by the natives for smearing themselves from head to 
foot, giving their skins a handsome colour, like the 
gloss on polished marble. To vary the colour, some 
red clay is added. The sorghum is sometimes affected 
with a black blight, but the natives do not think this 
any deterioration; all goes into the mill. They live 
upon Indian corn, ulezee, and sorghum, made into 
flour by rubbing the grains between stones as a house- 
painter pounds colours. Their vegetables are sweet 
potato, and the leaves, flowers, and fruits of pumpkins; 
and they brought us daily ground-nuts, tobacco, and 
fowls for sale. On the 3d of April the rice-harvest 
was being gathered in; but we perceived no traces 
of irrigation as in Egypt. Abundant rains gave an 
ample crop. The reapers consisted of negro women 
and girls, avIio sang pleasantly, though the scene was 
marred by the sight of a gang of men-slaves, heavily 
ironed together by their necks, with some superinten- 
dents, gleaning. Those who had small knives cut the 
stalk four or five inches below the grain, and held it 
in their left hand till the hand was full, when it was 
placed in a huge tub of bark lying in the field. In 
this way a three-feet-high stubble was left standing, 
to be trodden down by cattle. The thrashing of the 
rice was novel. A quantity of ears was placed upon a 
cow's hide, slaves in irons were made to work it with 
their toes and feet, and winnow it in the wind; and 
after being thoroughly sun-dried upon a clear space of 
cow-dunged ground, it was fit for the process of shell- 
ing in the large pestle and mortar. If a considerable 
amount was to be thrashed, a bludgeon answered the 
purpose of the negroes' feet. The stubble would after- 
wards be turned over with powerful long-handled hoes, 
