Human beings are generally merry and thoughtless in proportion as their wants are merely animal; and slaves are light-hearted, both by habit and natural temperament. The memory of suffering soon passes away; and during every interval of labor they will sing, dance, and laugh, as if the world had no cares for them. Pinckard, speaking of the British West Indies, says: “Sunday is a day of festivity among the slaves. They are passionately fond of dancing; and the Sabbath, offering them an interval from toil, is generally devoted to their favorite amusement. Instead of remaining in tranquil rest, they undergo more fatigue, or at least more personal exertion, during their gala hours of Saturday night and Sunday, than is demanded of them in labor during any four days of the week. They assemble in crowds upon the open green, or in any square or corner of the town, and forming a ring in the centre of the throng, dance to the sound of their beloved African music, consisting of a species of drum, a kind of rattle, and their ever delightful _banjar_. The dance consists of stamping of the feet, twisting of the body, and a number of strange, indecent attitudes. It is a severe bodily exertion, more bodily indeed than you can well imagine, for the limbs have little to do with it.” The clothing of slaves is generally the slightest possible, and of the coarsest materials. Pinckard speaks of seeing old women at Barbadoes washing clothes in the river, with no other covering than a piece of blue cloth fastened round the loins, after the manner of savages. He says “their bodies bore the crowded and callous scars of repeated punishment.” In the West Indies, the negro women carry their babes across the hip, as in Africa. Small rude huts are appropriated to the field slaves, where they live much after the fashion of pigs in a sty. Those who are kept for house-servants generally lie down upon the floor, wherever they happen to be when the labors of the day are over. A person rising earlier than usual, is liable to stumble over them in the entries. Female slaves toil in the fields, under the lash of the driver, as laboriously as the men; and, generally speaking, no difference is made in the mode or severity of punishment. A little patch of ground is usually assigned to each slave family, where they may raise vegetables for themselves, in addition to the tasks performed for their masters. Many of them spend their leisure moments in making baskets and brooms to carry to market, and thus procure a little money. The negroes believe they shall return to Africa when they die; and this idea has often led to suicide. They follow a friend to the grave with every demonstration of joy; and when the ceremony is finished, sing: “God bless you, Jenny--Good-bye--remember me to all friends t’other side of the sea--tell ’em me come soon--Good-bye, Jenny.”