HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
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with twigs, interwoven with, and covered by, a coat of strong grass: while the roof is 
protected by a kind of mat, made of the leaves of cocoa trees. The upper orders 
have houses built of stone, cemented with tempered clay. 
Vegetables and milk form their principal food; but instead of oil and vinegar 
for their sallad, they use a liquor which they extract from the cocoa-nut. Persons 
of rank are distinguished by the nails of their fingers, which they suffer to grow to 
an immoderate length; they also paint them with the alkana, which produces an 
orange colour: this fruit is found on a particular kind of shrub, that grows in 
marshy places. They generally wear large knives attached to a belt which is fas¬ 
tened round their middle; the handles of some of them are of silver and agate. 
The lower ranks have no other dress than a piece of coarse cloth tied round their 
loins, with a sort of cap upon the head, made of any kind of stuff they can procure. 
Those of the rank above them wear a shirt with large sleeves, which hangs down 
upon a pair of drawers, and covers a waistcoat made of a thick or light stuff, 
according to the season : the higher orders wear turbans. 
The women are clad in a kind of jacket and petticoat, with a loose robe, and 
when they go out, their face is covered with a veil: they are very careful in adorn¬ 
ing their legs, their arms, and their ears; they wear in the latter such a variety of 
baubles, in the form of pendants, that the lobes of them are drawn down to their 
shoulders; their arms and wrists are decorated with a number of bracelets, made 
of glass, of iron, of copper, of tin, or of silver, according to their rank and fortune. 
They suffer their children, both male and female, to be naked till the age of seven 
or eight years, a custom very general among the people of the East; they consider 
heat as more hurtful than cold, and are of opinion that a free access of air to every 
part of their bodies tends to strengthen them, and is much more favourable to their 
growth than if they were enveloped in clothes: thus, in their opinion, the infants 
and children are preserved from many maladies to which those are subject who are 
educated in a different manner. Health is the principal object with these people, 
and they have the good sense to consider it as the first blessing of life. 
They are remarkable for their simplicity, obliging disposition, and hospitality, 
which often exceeds their means of indulging it: their manners preserve that natural 
appearance which proves that they have not yet been corrupted by the arts of the 
more civilized world. 
The delightful temperature of their climate renders them indolent, and prone to 
