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Cape Mount

Clothing, gender and religion

Villault “could perceive” that many of the men were circumcised. Many husbands spent hours “with their heads in their Wives lapps” having their hair combed and platted.

Although Villault tried to learn as much as possible about the local religion, a local person reportedly told him that “the Whites pray’d to God, and the Blacks to the Devil.”

Social status apparently defined, not only differences in dress, but also in housing. In contrast to the nondescript huts of salt-makers, the “houses of their Nobility” contained “a distinct appartment where their beds are made either upon plancks, or mat; about a yeard from the ground, about which they hang a cloth.”

Footnote: Villault, 1670, pp. 62-65.