The Eyes Are Blacked With Khol.

The mistress and the better-looking females stain their teeth, and the inside of the lips, of a yellow colour, with goora, the flower of the tobacco plant, and the bark of a root; the outer parts of the lips, hair, and eyebrows are stained with shunt, or prepared indigo.

Then the women, who attend the market, prepare their wares for sale, and when ready, set off, ten or twelve in a party, and following each at a stated distance. Many of these trains are seen, and their step is, so regular, that if they had been drilled by a sergeant of the foot-guards in England, they could not perform their motions with greater exactitude. The elderly women prepare, clean, and spin cotton at home, and cook the victuals; the younger females are generally sent round the town, selling the small rice balls, fried beans, &c., and bringing back a supply of water for the day. The master of the house generally takes a walk to the market, or sits in the shade at the door of his hut, hearing the news, or speaking of the price of natron or other goods. The weavers are daily employed at their trade; some are sent to cut wood, and bring it to market; others to bring grass for the horses that may belong to the house, or to take to the market to sell. A number of people at the commencement of the rainy season, are employed in clearing the ground for sowing the maize and millet, some are sent on distant journeys to buy and sell for their master or mistress, and they very rarely betray their trust. About noon, they return home, when all have a mess of the pudding called tvaki, or boiled beans. About two or three in the afternoon, they return to their different employments, on which they remain until near sunset, when they count their gains to their master or mistress, who receives it, and puts it carefully away in their strong room. They then have a meal of pudding, and a little fat or stew. The mistress of the house, when she goes to rest, has her feet put into a cold poultice of the pounded henna leaves. The young then go to dance and play, if it be moonlight, and the old to lounge and converse in the open square of the house, or in the outer coozie, where they remain until the cool of the night, or till the approach of morning drives them into shelter.

The majority of the inhabitants of Koolfu are professedly Mahommedans; the rest are pagans, who once a year, in common with the other people of Nyffee, repair to a high hill in one of the southern provinces, on which they sacrifice a black bull, a black sheep, and a black dog. On their fetish houses are sculptured, as in Youriba, the lizard, the crocodile, the tortoise, and the boa, with sometimes human figures.

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