The women are sensible, modest, tender, faithful, and particularly handsome; their charms being increased by an air of innocence and a mildness of language. They have, however, an invincible inclination for love and voluptuousness; while they express the sentiments of those passions with an accent and tone of voice, which our organs cannot imitate either in point of feeling or softness. They have a skin as black as ebony; a well-formed nose, generally aquiline; eyes large and lively; thin, vermilion lips; and the finest teeth in the world. In short, their shape is enchanting; and they may be said to combine all the perfections of beauty. The marriages of the Black or Mulatto catholics take place at the church, as in France; those of the Mahometans are celebrated according to the law of the prophet. The union of a white man with a black or mulatto girl is a compact quite peculiar. It is not indissoluble, but lasts as long as the parties have no reason to complain of each other; or till they are obliged to separate for ever; but if the absence of the man be only for a certain time, the woman remains single, waits with patience for the return of her husband, and she does not make choice of another, except in case of death, or the assurance that he will not return. This second union affixes no stigma on the honour or reputation of the woman. When a black man wishes to marry, and has made his choice, he finds the parents of the girl, and asks their consent: if he obtain it, the day is fixed for the ceremony. The girl then, veiled from head to foot, is conducted by her parents and nearest friends to the house of the bridegroom: here they find every thing disposed for a feast, and a table copiously served. The guests eat, drink, sing, and dance to the sound of instruments during the whole night, and make a shocking riot. The married couple are then conducted to a chamber, and the musicians, buffoons, and mountebanks attend at the door, till the marriage be consummated, in order to publish the success of the bridegroom and the virtue of the bride. They carry the testimony through the streets, written in letters of blood on a piece of white cotton; but the blood is generally that of a fowl. If the new married woman be a widow, this ridiculous farce does not take place. The girl thus married takes the name of the husband, and does the honours of his house; the children who proceed from such an union, bear the name of their father. Whence it happens that at Isle St. Louis and Goree we meet with several mulatto families which have French and English names. A woman thinks herself honoured by partaking of the couch of a white man, and is true, submissive, and grateful to the utmost extent; in short, she uses every art to merit his kindness and love.