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[Page 398]

Manners & Customs of S. Sea Islands

a stick for that purpose into the skin so deep that every stroke is followd by a small quantity of Blood or serum at least & the part so markd remains sore for many days before it heals

I saw this operation performd on the 5th of July on the buttocks of a girl about 14 years of age for some time she bore it with great resolution but afterwards began to complain & in a little time grew so outrageous that all the threats & force they her freinds could use could hardly oblige her indure it I had occasion to remain in an adjoining house an hour at least after this operation began & yet went away before it was finished tho this was the blacking of only one side of her buttocks the other having been done some weeks before

This It is done between the ages of 14 & 18 & so essential it is that I have never seen one single person of years of maturity without it. What can be a sufficient inducement to suffer so much pain is difficult to say; not one Indian (tho I have askd hundreds) would ever give me any the least reason for it; possibly superstition may have something to do with it, nothing else in my opinion could be a sufficient cause for so apparently absurd a custom. As for the smaller marks on the fingers arms &c they may be intended
 

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