They Have Become Mahometans Merely By Means
Of Their Intercourse With The Azanhaji And Arabs; For Since They Became
Acquainted With The Christians, They Are By No Means So Fond Of The
Mahometan Faith.
The generality of the negroes go quite naked, except a
piece of goat skin before; but the lords who are able to procure such,
wear cotton shirts, which are spun and manufactured by their women.
Their
webs are only a span in width, as they have not sufficient art to
construct and use wider looms; so that they are obliged to sew five, six,
or more of these webs together, when it is required to make any large
piece of work. The shirts reach half way down the thighs, and have wide
sleeves which; cover only half of their arms. They wear also cotton
drawers, reaching to the small of their legs; and these drawers are made
preposterously wide, being often thirty-five or forty palms in
circumference; so that, when tied on, they are full of plaits, and though
like A sack before the hinder part trails on the ground like the train of
a large petticoat. Thus, though making a most ridiculous appearance, they
think nothing comes up to their dress for elegance, and they often ask
the Europeans if they ever saw a finer dress. Their women, both married
and unmarried, go naked from the waist upwards, and wear a piece of
cotton which covers them from the waist to the middle of the legs.
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