CHAPTER. I. BOA CONSTRICTOR. BIJUGAS. FELLOOPS. I TOOK leave of my reader on quitting Sierra Leone; but, before I proceed on my travels, I shall describe the operation of tattooing, and give some account of the boa constrictor and the termites, which I had an opportunity of observing, while there. The patterns raised upon the skin form a distinction of rank, as well as country, and a slave dares not tattoo himself so magnificently as his master. The wounds inflicted on a woman of fashion would be insupportable, if they were intended for any other purpose than ornament. At Sierra Leone, I saw the operation performed upon a girl of ten years of age, who was of the family of the king. The pattern, which consisted of a small flower with five petals, was traced out with an acrid and absorbent liquid, of a deep red colour, on the breast, the body, the hips, the thighs, and the calves of the legs. The skin was then torn off with small, sharp nippers, and each leaf (and the leaves were innumerable) became a wound. As this was the making of a sumptuous habit which was to last for life, the young lady bore it heroically, and did not utter one complaint. The operation occupied ten days, and after each sitting the wounded parts were rubbed with palm oil, mixed with an aromatic substance; in ten |