Tattoo marks.

The custom of marking or ornamenting the body by means of cuts or gashes prevails over the whole country. The skin is drawn tight and is then cut either with a sharp splinter of glass or with a knife, the scores being two or three inches or more long. On the point of each shoulder they take a perpendicular direction; on the chest or back they are either horizontal or perpendicular. The object is to make a raised scar; the wounds are therefore kept open by blowing wood ashes into them. The bodies of some of these blacks are marked in the most regular manner by parallel scars from the shoulders to the heels. Some persons consider that each tribe has its own particular form for making these cuts, but I think that any irregularity or difference in the marking is due either to the awkwardness of the operator or the fancy of the black. Some men perforate the cartilage of the nose and thrust a long bone through. This bone is sharp-pointed like a skewer, and is used as a comb.

These blacks have great tenacity of life, and soon recover from wounds which would prove fatal to other men.