AFRICAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 283, 25 November 1873, Page 1

AFRICAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

The clothed races of Africa, whether Moslem or Christian, are apt to forget the virtue 'which is next to Godliness; while the naked races of the lowest type cover themselves with oil, paint, clay, or grease, to protect tbeir skins from the son. Bnt these people of the Gold Coast are, perhaps, the most cleadly natives in the world. They take a bath in the morning and another in tho evening, washing themselves ; from head to foot witb palm-oil soap' of their own manufacture, and then rob lime-juice over the skin. At almost every hoar in tbe day may be heard infantine shrieks and lamentations, which, when traced to their source, are found to proceed from children three years of age being washed by children scarcely older than themselves. As for the boys, they are always in the water; tbe eeais tbeir playground. Lying on pieceß of board outside the surf they let the breakers , carry tbem in — a pleasure analogous to sliding. Both sexes uee the tooth-stick at every leisure moment in the day; which practice partly accounts for tbe beauty of tbeir teetb. Tbe women also perfume the hair, and arrange it in tasteful coiffares. Tbeir dress is in childhood a girdle of beads, tbe ase of which is universal throughout Black Africa, from the Niger to the" Nile, and is pourtrayed oa the monuments in Egypt. A mystical meaning seems to be attached to tbis part of their apparel. In Wad?, according to Mohammed el Tounaey, if a man wishes to make overtures to a woman be jingles her girdle. On tbe Gold Coast, to touch the beads of a married woman ie a crime, and the offender pays a heavy fine, as in the case of intrigue. In Dahomey to touch a queen's girdle is death. When the child becomes a girl she is invested with tbe waistcloth in addition to the girdle, and when she marries, receives a kind of plaid or shawl which she wears according lo ber fancy. The men have a similar garment, and wear it always like a toga,—* the left shoulder covered, tbe right arm bare. When tbey meet a superior tbey uncover the left shoulder, They laugh at onr coats, waistcoats, under waistcoats, and trowsers, saying that instead of wearing one piece we dress ourselves in rags. — From the African Sketch Book, by Winwood Reade.