figures intended to be represented are first drawn upon the skin with a small piece of stick dipped in wood ashes, after which the line is divided by a sharp pointed knife. The wound is then healed as quickly as possible, by washing it with an infusion of bullanta. This operation is not performed by a particular set of people, but is practised by any one who possesses sufficient skill to make the attempt. This custom has prevailed very generally among rude nations, and is of very great antiquity; it was in use to denote their grief and lamen. tation for the dead, and also implied that they had devoted themselves to the service of some particular idol, whose image they had impressed upon their bodies. For this cause it is strictly forbidden in scripture. "Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead;" and again, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you." Although the people who allow this custom do not attach to it any superstitious ideas, but practise it merely for ornament, yet it seems probable that the Mahommedan nations are influenced by this prohibition, and for the same reasons, as they say their book forbids them to practise it. These incisions or marks are generally made during childhood, and are very common on the Gold Coast, where each nation has its peculiar mode of ornamenting themselves, so that by the disposition of the marks it is easy to know which country the person belongs to; for the most part the females possess the greatest number of these painful ornaments.' The Africans are fond of music and dancing: but the for mer, as may be readily imagined, is not of the most harmonious kind. Our tambourine and triangle are, however, borrowed from them. With regard to government, it is conducted in a simple and patriarchal manner. At the head of every town, is what is called a headman, who is an elderly person, distinguished by his acquaintance with the laws of the country. He is much revered by the inhabitants, and settles the disputes which may arise among them. Criminal causes are submitted to an assembly of the headmen of the country, and slavery is the usual punishment of guilt.-It must be admitted that the accused have a poor chance of exculpating themselves from the crime of which they have been charged; for, if they deny it, they are obliged to submit themselves to an ordeal which varies according to circumstances, but is much more likely to prove their guilt than their innocence. Either a hot iron is applied to the culprit's skin; or he must slip his arm into a vessel full of boiling palm oil, and take from thence a snake's head, a ring, or some other article which has been put in for the purpose. In either "case, his being burnt is considered as a sufficient proof of kis guilt.' In the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, the most usual mode of trial resembles that of bitter water formerly in use among the Jews, and is called red water by the Africans. 6 A person A person accused of theft or of witchcraft endeavours, if innocent, to repel the charge by drinking red water. A palaver is first held among the old people of the town, to whom the accusation is made by one party, and protestations of innocence by the other; and if they determine that it shall be settled by a public trial, the accused fixes on some neighbouring town, to which he repairs, and informs the head man of his wish to drink red water there. A palaver is again held to determine whether his request shall be granted; if not, he must seek some other town. In case of the head man's acquiescence, the accused remains in the town concealed from strangers, sometimes for two or three months, before the day of trial is appointed. When that is fixed, notice is sent to the accuser three days before, that he may attend with as many of his friends as he chuses. The red water is prepared by infusing the bark of a tree, called by the Bulloms kwon, by the Timmanees, okwon, and by the Soos008 mille, in water, to which it imparts a powerful emetic, and sometimes a purgative quality. In some instances it has proved immediately fatal, which leads to a suspicion that occasionally some other addition must be made to it, especially as it does not appear that the delicate are more liable to be thus violently affected by it than the robust. To prevent, however, any suspicion of improper conduct, the red water is always administered in the most public manner, in the open air, and in the midst of a large concourse of people, who upon these solemn occasions never fail to assemble from all quarters, particularly the women, to whom it affords as good an opportunity of displaying their finery and taste in dress, as a country wake in England does to the neighbouring females. The accused is placed upon a kind of stool about three feet high, one hand being held up and the other placed upon his thigh, and beneath the seat are spread a number of fresh plantain leaves. A circle of about seven or eight feet in diameter is formed round the prisoner, and no one is admitted within it but the person who prepares the red water. The bark is publicly exposed, to shew that it is genuine. The operator first washes his own hands and then the bark, as well as the mortar and pestle with which it is to be powdered, to prove that nothing improper is concealed there. When powdered, a calibash full is mixed in a large brass pan full of water, and is stirred quickly with a kind of whisk until covered with a froth like a lather of soap. A variety of ceremonies, prayers, &c. are performed at the same time, and the accused is repeatedly and solemnly desired to confess the crime with which he has been charged. A little before he begins to drink the infusion, he is obliged to wash his mouth and spit the water out, to shew that he has nothing concealed in it a little rice or a piece of kola is then given him to eat, being the only substance he is allowed to take for twelve hours previous to the trial; and, in order to prevent his obtaining any thing else, he is narrowly watched during that space of time by a number of people, who are responsible for his conduct. After having repeated a prayer dictated to him, which contains an imprecation upon himself if he be guilty, the red water is administered to him in a calibash capable of holding about half a pint, which he empties eight, ten, or a dozen times successively, as quick as it can be filled. It probably now begins to exert its emetic powers, but he must notwithstanding persist in drinking until the rice or kola be brought up, which is easily seen upon the plantain leaves spread below Should vomiting not be caused, and the medicine produce purgative effects, the person is condemned immediately; or if it be suspected that the whole of what he has eaten is not brought up, he is permitted to retire, but with this reserve, that if the medicine shall produce no effect, upon his bowels until next day at the same hour, he is then, and not before, pronounced innocent; otherwise he is accounted guilty. When the red water proves purgative, it is termed "spoiling the red water." The utmost quantity which may be swallowed is sixteen calibashes full; if these have not the desired effect, the prisoner is not allowed to take any more. When neither vomiting nor purging are produced, the red water causes violent pains in the bowels, which are considered as marks of guilt: in such cases they endeavour to recover the patient by exciting vomiting; and to sheathe the acrimony of the red water they give him raw eggs to swallow. in some instances the person has died after drinking the fourth calibash. if the rice or kola be long in coming up, it is common for some of the culprit's friends to come near, and accuse him with great violence of some trifling fault; for they suppose, if any thing prejudicial to his character were concealed, it would prevent the favourable operation of the red water. Women at such a time, when the trial is for witchcraft or some other crime and not for adultery, have an excellent opportunity of proving their chastity before the world, by publicly declaring that the have proved faithful to their husband, and wishing that they may be punished if they have spoken falsely: this is looked upon as a most irrefragable proof of fidelity. When the accused is permitted to leave the tripod upon which he is seated, he is ordered to move his arms and legs, to shew that he has not lost the use of them, and immediately runs back into the town, followed by all the women and boys shouting and hailooing. People who have undergone this trial, and have escaped, acquire from that circumstance additional consequence and respect. When acquitted, they dress, particularly the women, in their best clothes, and visit all their friends and acquaintances, who receive them with many tokens of affection and regard. When the accused dies upon the spot, which frequently happens; or when the red water is spoiled, and the party is too old to sell; one of his family, unless he can redeem himself by a slave, is taken and sold. Sometimes, for want of a proper opportunity, the affair remains unsettled for many years, and I knew an instance of a young man having actually been sold for a slave, because his grand-mother had spoiled red water many years before he was born.' An institution called Purra exists among the Bulloms of Sherbro, which resembles the antient secret tribunals of Germany, and is equally an object of dread. The peculiar matters of attention with this tribunal are witchcraft, murder, and contumacy in their members, who are expected to keep the secrets of the confederacy, and to observe its mandates. The guilty are punished in so secret a manner, that the perpetrators are never known.-Ainong the Soosoos, is an institution of of a somewhat similar kind, called Semo, and by the natives who speak English, African Masonry. The initiated have a language peculiar to themselves. The jurisdiction of both these institutions is confined to men: but there is one to which wo men only are amenable, called Boondoo, and an old woman called Boondoo-woman has the entire superintendance of it. The object of this inquisitorial establishment is to extract from women a full confession of every crime of which they may have been guilty themselves or to which they may have been privy in others. If their confession be satisfactory to the Boondoowoman, they are liberated, and an act of oblivion is passed with respect to their former conduct; unless their crime has been witchcraft, which is always punished with slavery. If the unfortunate woman protest her innocence, or refuse to tell all that she knows, she is invariably cut off by a sudden death. Polygamy is admitted to any extent, but marriages may be set aside on proper cause being shewn. This custom does not prove the source of the violent commotions in families which might be imagined; and a younger rival scarcely excites in the former wives any emotions of jealousy. A Foola woman of some consequence and much good sense, whose husband had four wives, being asked if she did not wish to reign alone, replied in the negative; for as she was not company for her husband, she would be quite at a loss for amusement, were it not for the conversation of his other wives. The first wife a man takes, enjoys a greater share of respect than the others, and retains the title of head woman, with a degree of enviable authority, long after her personal charms have ceased to enslave her husband's affections.' The commerce of Africa is principally that of barter: but, though the natives are nearly unacquainted with the use of coin, they form to themselves an ideal standard, by which they determine the value of commodities bought and sold. In some parts of Africa, this is a nominal medium called a Bar; to which, in calculation, commodities are reduced. In others, different weights of gold are used for the same purpose: The strangest and most curious kind of commercial intercourse is that which is practised by a nation inhabiting the banks of the Niger. They trade with Moorish merchants, who annually pay them a visit, without the parties seeing each other, or practising any fraud. The merchants repair every year, at a stated period of the moon, to a certam place, where they find in the evening the articles they are in want of, consisting chiefly of gold dust, disposed in small heaps at a little distance from each other. Opposite to these heaps the merch ants place the value they intend to give for each, consisting of coral, beads, bracelets, and other trinkets, which they leave there and retire: next day the negroes return, and if they approve of the bargain they take away the trinkets, or, if not, they diminish the quantity of gold.' Dr. Dr. Winterbottom devotes a chapter to the consideration of the physical peculiarities of the Africans, which he refers to the effects of climate. He takes some pains to vindicate them from the charge of want of natural affection, and from those of timidity and stupidity, which have been so liberally preferred against them. Their affection to their mothers is extremely great, as are their regard to the aged, their attachments, their hospitality, sensibility to personal favours, and acuteness to an insult or indignity.-Considerable attention, we are informed, is paid to the instruction of children along some of the nations, and no marks of indocility appear in them. The last two chapters of this interesting volume are employed in detailing the religious superstitions of the natives; with the trials, punishments, funerals, and mourning of the Mohammedans. A curious account is given of a Mohammedan impostor, who gained by his artifices a great share of credit among the people; and of the practice of Obi as existing in the West Indies of which also a description has been already furnished in Mr. Bryan Edwards's valuable History of the West India Islands. Three Appendices are annexed; the first containing a description of the Colony of Sierra Leone; the second, a meteorological account of this settlement; and the third supplies a description of the Termites, taken from Mr. Smeathman's paper in the 71st volume of the Philosophical Transactions. In our next Number, we shall examine Dr. W.'s second volume; in which he restricts his attention to the State of Me dicine among the native Africans. [To be continued.] Yell. MONTHLY CATALO G U E, HISTORY. Art. 16. An accurate Eistorical Account of all the Orders of Knight. hood at present existing in Europe. To which is prefixed a Critical Dissertation upon the antient and present State of those Equestrian Institutions, and a prefatory Discourse on the Origin of Knighthood in general, the whole interspersed with Illustrations and Explanatory Notes. By an Officer of the Chancery of the Equestrian, Secular, and Chapteral Order of Saint Joachim. 2 Vols. Evo. pp. 240 and 315. 18s. Boards. Printed at Hamburgh, for White, London. THE title page sufficiently announces the object of the present work; which traces cach order to its origin, gives an account of |