Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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As An
Accompaniment To This Singular Kind Of Music, They Were Favoured With
The Strains Of An Organ, Which Instrument Was Turned By A Little Boy,
Placed Purposely In A Corner Of The Apartment.
In the afternoon, a young Jenna woman came to visit them, accompanied
by a female friend from Houssa.
Her hair was traced with such
extraordinary neatness, that John Lander expressed a wish to examine
it more minutely. The girl had never beheld such a thing as a white
man before, and permission was granted with a great deal of coyness,
mixed up perhaps with a small portion of fear, which was apparent as
she was slowly untying her turban. No sooner, however, was the
curiosity of the travellers gratified, than a demand of two hundred
kowries was insisted on by her companion, that, it was alleged, being
the price paid in the interior by the male sex to scrutinize a lady's
hair. They were obliged to conform to the usual custom, at which the
women expressed themselves highly delighted. The hair, which had
excited the admiration of the travellers, was made up in the shape of
a hussar's helmet, and very ingeniously traced on the top. Irregular
figures were likewise braided on each side of the head, and a band of
worked thread, dyed in indigo, encircled it below the natural hair,
which seemed, by its tightness and closeness, to have been glued fast
to the skin. This young Jenna woman was by far the most interesting,
both in face and form, of any they had seen since their landing; and
her prettiness was rendered more engaging by her retiring modesty and
perfect artlessness of manner, which, whether observed in black or
white, are sure to command the esteem and reverence of the other sex.
Her eyelids were stained with a bluish-black powder, which is the
same kind of substance, it is supposed, as that described in a note
in Mr. Beckford's Vatheck.
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