Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa [1790]Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
History
Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa [1790]
Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
Africa -- Description and travel
“I have seen a small mummy;—it has what I call wampum work on
it. It appears as common here as among the Tartars. Tatowing is
as prevalent among the Arabs of this place as among the South Sea
Islanders. It is a little curious, that the women here are more
generally than in any other part of the world tatowed on the chin,
with perpendicular lines descending from the under lip to the chin,
like the women on the North West Coast of America. It is also a
custom here to stain the nails red, like the Cochin Chinese, and
the Northern Tartars. The mask or veil that the women here wear,
resembles exactly that worn by the Priests at Otaheite, and those
seen at Sandwich Islands.
“I have not yet seen the Arabs make use of a tool like our axe or
hatchet; but what they use for such purposes as we do our hatchet
and axe, is in the form of an adze, and is a form we found most
agreeable to the South Sea Islanders. I see no instance of a tool
formed designedly for the use of the right or left hand particularly,
as the cotogon is among the Yorkertic Tartars.
“There is certainly a very remarkable affinity between the Russian
and Greek dress. The fillet round the temples of the Greek and Russian
women, is a circumstance in dress that perhaps would strike nobody
as it does me; and so of the wampum work too, which is also found
among them both.
“They spin here with the distaff and spindle only, like the French
peasantry and others in Europe; and the common Arab loom is upon
our principle, though rude.
“I saw to-day (August 10th) an Arab woman white, like the White
Indians in the South Sea Islands, Isthmus of Darien, &c. These kind
of people all look alike.
“Among the Greek women here, I find the identical Archangel
head-dress.
“Their music is instrumental, consisting of a drum and pipe, both
which resemble those two instruments in the South Seas: the drum
is exactly like the Otaheite drum; the pipe is made of cane, and
consists of a long and short tube joined: the music resembles very
much the bagpipe, and is pleasant.—All their music is concluded,
if not accompanied, by the clapping of hands. I think it singular,
that the women here make a noise with their mouths like frogs, and
that this frog-music is always made at weddings; and I believe on
all other occasions of merriment where there are women.
“It is remarkable, that the dogs here are of just the same species
found among the Otaheiteans.
“It is also remarkable, that in one village I saw exactly the same
machines used for diversion as in Russia.—I forget the Russian
name for it. It is a large kind of wheel, on the extremities of
which there are suspended seats, in which people are whirled round
over and under each other.
“The women dress their hair behind exactly in the same manner in
which the women of the Calmuc Tartars dress theirs.
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