Their town contains not more than thirty or forty houses, all irregularly clustered together, all thatched with reeds; yet each has a kind of yard inclosed with mud walls, like our hovels or hog-styles in England. Instead of a locked and bolted door, the entrance is only closed by a mat, having nothing to be stolen; and for bedsteads they have only a few billets covered by a mat; yet some have hangings of mats, especially about their beds. Their furniture consists of two or three earthen pots to hold water, and to boil such provisions as they can get; a gourd or two for palm-wine; half a gourd to serve as a drinking cup; a few earthen dishes for their loblolly or pottage; a basket for the maria [wife], to gather cockles; and a knapsack for the man, made of bark, to carry his provisions, with his pipe and tobacco. When a negro man goes from home, he has always his knapsack on his back, in which he has his provisions and tobacco, his pipe being seldom from his mouth; besides which, he has always his do-little sword by his side, made by themselves of such iron as they get from the Europeans; his bow also, and quiver full of poisoned arrows, pointed with iron like a snake's-tongue, or else a case of javelins or darts, having iron heads of good breadth and made sharp, sometimes both.
The men of this country are large and well-made, strong and courageous, and of civilized manners for heathens; as they keep most faithfully to their wives, of whom they are not a little jealous. I could not learn their religion; for though they have some idols, they seem to know that there is a God in heaven, as, when we asked them about their wooden puppets, they used to lift up their hands to heaven. All their children are circumcised, but I could not learn the reason why. They are very just and true in their dealings, and theft is punished with instant death. When any one dies, a small thatched roof is erected over his bier, under which are set earthen pots kept always full of water, and some earthen plates with different kinds of food, a few bones being stuck up around the body. To the south of this bay, some thirty or forty leagues into the interior country, there are very fierce people, who are cannibals, and sometimes infest the natives of Sierra Leona.
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The inhabitants of Sierra Leona feed on rice, of which they only cultivate what is indispensibly needful for their subsistence, in small patches near their dwellings, which they clear by burning the woods. They likewise sow another very small grain, called pene, of which they make bread, not much unlike winter savory. They rear a few poultry about their houses, using no other animal food, except when they sometimes get a fawn of the wild deer, a few of which are found in the mountains, or some wild fowl. They feed also on cockles and oysters, of which there are vast quantities on the rocks and trees by the sea-side, but these have rather an insipid taste; and they catch plenty of excellent fish, by means of wears and other devices. They also feed on herbs and roots, cultivating about their dwellings many plantains, gourds, pumpkins, potatoes, and guinea pepper. Tobacco likewise is planted by every one, and seems to constitute half their food. The hole of their tobacco pipe is very large, and made of clay well burnt into the lower end of which they thrust a small hollow cane eighteen inches long, through which they suck the smoke, both men and women swallowing most of it. Every man carries a small bag called a tuffio, in his knapsack, in which is his pipe and tobacco, and the women have their tuffio in their wrappers, carrying their pipes in their hands. They prepare their tobacco for smoking by straining out its juice while quite green, and they informed us by signs that it would otherwise make them drunk. They afterwards shred it very small, and dry it on an earthen dish over the embers. On an island in the bay we saw about half a dozen goats, and no where else in this country.
They have innumerable kinds of fruits growing wild in the woods, in which are whole groves of lemon trees, especially near the town and watering-place, and some few orange trees. Their drink is mostly water, yet the men use great quantities of palmito wine, which they call moy, giving little or none to the women. It is strange to see their manner of climbing the palmito trees, which are of great size and height, having neither boughs nor branches except near the top. Surrounding the tree and his own, body by means of a withe, or band of twisted twigs, on which he leans his back, and jerking up his withe before him, he foots it up with wonderful speed and certainty, and comes down again in the same manner, bringing his gourd full of liquor on his arm. Among their fruits are many kinds of plumbs; one like a wheaten plumb is wholesome and savoury; likewise a black one, as large as a horse plumb, which is much esteemed, and has an aromatic flavour. A kind called mansamilbas, resembling a wheaten plumb, is very dangerous, as is likewise the sap of the boughs, which is perilous for the sight, if it should chance to get into the eyes.[209] Among their fruits is one called beninganion, about the size of a lemon, with a reddish rind, and very wholesome; also another called bequill, as large as an apple, with a rough knotty skin, which is pared off, when the pulp below eats like a strawberry, which likewise it resembles in colour and grain, and of which we eat many. There are abundance of wild grapes in the woods, but having a woody and bitterish taste. The nuts of the palmito are eaten roasted. They use but little pepper and grains, the one in surgery and the other in cooking. There is a singular fruit, growing six or eight together in a bunch, each as long and thick as one's finger, the skin being of a brownish yellow colour, and somewhat downy, and within the rind is a pulp of a pleasant taste; but I know not if it be wholesome.
[Footnote 209: Probably the Manchencel--E.]
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I observed in the woods certain trees like beeches, bearing fruit resembling beans, of which I noticed three kinds. One of these was a great tall tree, bearing cods like those of beans, in each of which was four or five squarish beans, resembling tamarind seeds, having hard shells, within which is a yellow kernel, which is a virulent poison, employed by the negroes to envenom their arrows. This they call Ogon. The second is smaller, having a crooked pod with a thick rind, six or seven inches long, and half that breadth, containing each five large beans an inch long. The third, called quenda, has short leaves like the former, and much bigger fruit, growing on a strong thick woody stalk, indented on the sides, nine inches long and five broad, within which are five long beans, which are also said to be dangerous. I likewise saw trees resembling willows, bearing fruit like pease-cods.
There is a fruit called Gola, which grows in the interior. This fruit, which is inclosed in a shell, is hard, reddish, bitter, and about the size of a walnut, with many angles and corners. The negroes are much given to chew this fruit along with the bark of a certain tree. After one person has chewed it a while, he gives it to his neighbour, and so from one to another, chewing it long before they cast it away; but swallowing none of its substance. They attribute great virtues to this for the teeth and gums; and indeed the negroes have usually excellent teeth. This fruit passes also among them for money.[210] Higher within the land they cultivate cotton, which they call innumma, and of which they spin very good yarn with spindles, and afterwards very ingeniously weave into cloths, three quarters of a yard broad, to make their girdles or clouts formerly mentioned; and when sewed together it is made into jackets and breeches for their great men. By means of a wood called cambe, they dye their purses and mats of a red colour.
[Footnote 210: In a side-note; Purchas calls this the fruit of the carob tree.--E.]