Children go quite naked till the age of twelve or fourteen; their heads are shaved and figures drawn upon them, or tufts of hair left; but sometimes only half the head is shaved. At twelve the hair of the girls is suffered to grow, and the boys are completely shaved at eighteen. The opinion of some travellers, accredited in Senegal from popular stories respecting the manner of cutting the hair of the young people and leaving tufts to be cut off by degrees as they may distinguish themselves by brilliant actions, is absolutely false, at least in regard to the Braknas. I have had many occasions to know that these tufts of hair are a mere matter of fancy and that the number depends upon the will of the shaver or of the young man himself. It is a fashion which varies with individual taste; it is rare to see two heads trimmed in the same manner, excepting amongst the men above eighteen years of age, who closely crop the whole head. I have already observed that the Moorish women have great influence over their husbands; I repeat it here, to correct an error into which M. Durand has fallen, and which he may have communicated to his readers. The husband has no authority over his wife but what a superior understanding gives him; I should even say that the Mooresses possess more influence over their husbands than our French women. They rarely wait upon them; and only for want of slaves; even then I have always seen that in this case a neighbour would lend a woman to pound the millet and make the sangleh. I except the zenague women; but if these perform menial offices for their husbands, it is because the slaves are occupied; and besides they are in the habit of working. M. Durand says also that wives are never admitted to the meals of their husbands: I have witnessed the contrary; I have seen them eat with their sons and husbands, not often, indeed, but I have remarked that it was owing to the custom which the women have of taking nothing but milk, which is set before them in small calabashes. It is likewise incorrect to assert that the mother pays any deference to her son; or that the father and mother affect indifference to their daughters; the son is always submissive to his mother and pays her the utmost respect; and if the parents shew some preference for the boys, they do not love their daughters with less tenderness. Besides, I have never witnessed rejoicings at the birth either of a boy or a girl.