. A voyage to the river Sierra-Leone, on the coast of Africa; containing an account of the trade and productions of the country, and of the civil and religious customs and manners of the people; in a series of letters to a friend in England . y;for {hould any intercourfe between thefexes be difcovered, during the continuanceof this ceremony, the woman would be- H 4 come ,04 LETTER VI. come infamous, and the man be liable to afevere punifhment. A woman alfo, when fhe fuppofes herhufband negleds her, has the privilege ofputting his favourite miftrefs into this, however, happens, af
. A voyage to the river Sierra-Leone, on the coast of Africa; containing an account of the trade and productions of the country, and of the civil and religious customs and manners of the people; in a series of letters to a friend in England . y;for {hould any intercourfe between thefexes be difcovered, during the continuanceof this ceremony, the woman would be- H 4 come ,04 LETTER VI. come infamous, and the man be liable to afevere punifhment. A woman alfo, when fhe fuppofes herhufband negleds her, has the privilege ofputting his favourite miftrefs into this, however, happens, after a fhortprobation and a peace-offering, to the wife,of a goat or fix fowls, a jar of liquor, anda little tobacco, to be ufed in a cuUunjee,fhe is reftored to bis arms. Indeed this appears no bad policy on thepart of the elderly wives, to preferve fomedegree of confequence with the men j forduring the time the young woman is in thismourning, the hufband is deprived of herfociety. They have various kinds of nationalmufic 5 but the drum feems to be the prin-^cipal inflrument, of which they have threeforts, but they are of different fizes, accord-ing to the ufe for which they are intended:pnp is made of a hard wood, which is hol-lowed^. FOLDOUTHERE LETTER VI. 105 lowed, the ends of it flopped clofe, and alongitudinal opening made on the fide:they beat upon them with two flicks, andthe loud and flirill noife thefe drums giveare, in a ftill evening, heard to a greatdiftance, and are ufed to fpread an alarm:the others are made of light wood, hol-lowed throughout, and the ends coveredwith dried goat or (heep flcin, laced tightover vi^ith cords. Some of thefe are verylarge, from fix to eight feet lonp;, and twoor three feet diameter 5 in others the headsare only two or three inches apart, andfharks teeth or bits of copper are tied rouadthe rim, which make a jingling noife. The trombone and tamborine, ufed inEngland, appear to have been borrowedfrom the Africans. They have alfo twokin
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