hands to heaven. All their children
are circumcised, but I could not learn the reason why. They are very
just and true in their dealings, and theft is punished with instant
death. When any one dies, a small thatched roof is erected over his
bier, under which are set earthen pots kept always full of water, and
some earthen plates with different kinds of food, a few bones being
stuck up around the body. To the south of this bay, some thirty or forty
leagues into the interior country, there are very fierce people, who are
cannibals, and sometimes infest the natives of Sierra Leona.

[Illustration: map]

The inhabitants of Sierra Leona feed on rice, of which they only
cultivate what is indispensibly needful for their subsistence, in small
patches near their dwellings, which they clear by burning the woods.
They likewise sow another very small grain, called _pene_, of which they
make bread, not much unlike winter savory. They rear a few poultry about
their houses, using no other animal food, except when they sometimes get
a fawn of the wild deer, a few of which are found in the mountains, or
some wild fowl. They feed also on cockles and oysters, of which there
are vast quantities on the rocks and trees by the sea-side, but these
have rather an insipid taste; and they catch plenty of excellent fish,
by means of wears and other devices. They also feed on herbs and roots,
cultivating about their dwellings many plantains, gourds, pumpkins,
potatoes, and guinea pepper. Tobacco likewise is planted by every one,
and seems to constitute half their food. The hole of their tobacco pipe
is very large, and made of clay well burnt into the lower end of which
they thrust a small hollow cane eighteen inches long, through which they
suck the smoke, both men and women swallowing most of it. Every man
carries a small bag called a _tuffio_, in his knapsack, in which is his
pipe and tobacco, and the women have their _tuffio_ in their wrappers,
carrying their pipes in their hands. They prepare their tobacco for
smoking by straining out its juice while quite green, and they informed
us by signs that it would otherwise make them drunk. They afterwards
shred it very small, and dry it on an earthen dish over the embers. On
an island in the bay we saw about half a dozen goats, and no where else
in this country.

They have innumerable kinds of fruits growing wild in the woods, in
which are whole groves of lemon trees, especially near the town and
w