A voyage to Senegal

by Jean Baptiste Léonard Durand

Dresses of the Negroes of Senegal at Cape Verd.

The kings are always dressed in finer stuffs than the other Moors; they have likewise larger tents, and are remarkable for being covered with white linen or cotton.

The head-dress of the Moorish women is generally composed of a bandeau of white cotton, a part of which is larger than the rest, and serves as a veil for the face when they go in the sun: they often go veiled from head to foot. They have fine and long hair, which they plait, and leave flowing on their shoulders.

The Moors purchase from the Europeans or Negroes all the articles necessary for their clothing, and they pay for them in slaves or gum. The women often appear with their faces uncovered: this is a positive fact, at least with respect to the hordes in the vicinity of the Senegal. I have seen a great number of them, and even queens and their daughters, in their camps, as well as on board our vessels at Isle St. Louis, and they never appeared veiled. Some of these females were very handsome, and many of them were pretty; in general they have a pleasing appearance; they are of the ordinary height, but are well made; their eyes are large, black, and very animated; their complexion, which is browned both by nature and art, does not want for vivacity. They put a blue tint on their eye-lids, and redden their nails. They are but slightly clothed: they wear long trowsers, shifts with very wide sleeves, and a girdle under the bosom; and round the neck a piece of linen, generally blue, which hangs down to the heels; they walk with their legs and feet naked; but the princesses, when they pay visits, or on the days of ceremonies, use European slippers.

The language and religion of these people are those which the Arabians brought into Africa. Mahometanism was preached by the conquerors, and was adopted by the Africans who submitted to them: the others were exterminated. Soon the conquerors and the vanquished became one people, professed the same religion, and spoke the same language.

Of all known languages, the Arabic is the most extensive. It is spoken in the three Arabias, in Palestine, Syria, Mesapotamia, Egypt, on the coasts of Abex and Darien, in the kingdoms of Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, Fez, Morocco, and Talifez; in the immense countries which are in the environs and to the south of the Atlas; on the banks of the Nile, the Niger, the Senegal, and the Gambia; in short, it is the prevailing tongue wherever Mahometanism is established, but it is often disfigured by the dialects of the different nations who have adopted it.

It is the same with the religion of Mahomet, which was founded by valour, and extended by force: it has yielded in many parts to the manners and customs of the people on whom it has been imposed. The Moors, for example, are circumcised; but they have no fixed time for that ceremony, and they never perform it till after the age of thirteen years. The girls of these people are exempted from it, though there are some who make this operation by inflicting a slight wound. In the desert they have no mosques, but they meet in the open air: for the duty which they most scrupulously observe, is that of prayer, of which there are several repetitions in a day, and the first of which begins before sun-rise.

The talbe, or priest, is remarkable for his long beard; and is dressed in a piece of woollen cloth, half white and half crimson, which floats loosely about his body. His figure is emaciated by fasting and the continual wearing a kind of chaplet of an enormous size; and his voice is melancholy and lamentable. He begins his office by ordering the people to come and range themselves under his banner, to hear and sing the praises of the prophet; they all run towards him with the most holy respect. The talbe first inclines himself towards the earth, scatters with his hands that on which his feet have rested, and then taking a handful of that which has not been sullied by his steps, he, for want of water, rubs it over his face, hands, and arms, in order to purify himself, in which action the people all imitate him.