Page:Medical Heritage Library (IA b30530933).pdf/73

Rh so much of that Liquor as shall kill him; but if inclined to spare him, they politickly give less, or make it weaker, whereby his Innocence appears the better to the Friends and Relations of the deceased.

Panyarring, is a Term for Man-stealing along the whole Coast: Here it’s used also, for stealing any thing else; and by Custom (their Law) every Man has a right to seize of another at any Conveniency, so much as he can prove afterwards, at the Palaaver-Court, to have been defrauded of, by any body in the same place he was cheated.

Dancing is the Diversion of their Evenings: Men and Women make a Ring in an open part of the Town, and one at a time shews his Skill in antick Motions and Gesticulations, yet with a great deal of Agility, the Company making the Musick by clapping their hands together during the time, helped by the louder noise of two or three Drums made of a hollowed piece of Tree, and covered with Kid-Skin. Sometimes they are all round in a Circle laughing, and with uncouth Notes, blame or praise somebody in the Company.

During our day at this Port, we paid a Visit to Seignior Joseph, about nine miles up the River. The Reason of his leaving the other Town, he told me was, the frequent Palaavers he was engaged in, on account of Differences between his People and