Bread and salt meat he smelled at, but would not taste:
all our liquors he treated in the same manner, and could drink nothing
but water. On being shown that he was not to wipe his hands on the chair
which he sat upon, he used a towel which was gave to him,
with great cleanliness and decency.
In the afternoon his hair was closely cut, his head combed, and his beard
shaved; but he would not submit to these operations until he had seen them
performed on another person, when he readily acquiesced. His hair,
as might be supposed, was filled with vermin, whose destruction seemed
to afford him great triumph; nay, either revenge, or pleasure, prompted him
to eat them! but on our expressing disgust and abhorrence he left it off.
To this succeeded his immersion in a tub of water and soap, where he was
completely washed and scrubbed from head to foot; after which a shirt,
a jacket, and a pair of trousers, were put upon him. Some part
of this ablution I had the honour to perform, in order that I might ascertain
the real colour of the skin of these people. My observation then was
(and it has since been confirmed in a thousand other instances) that they are
as black as the lighter cast of the African negroes.
