The women carefully abstain from eating with the men or even any of the victuals that have been prepard for them. All their victuals are prepard seperately by boys and kept in a shed by themselves where they are lookd after by the same boys who attend them at their meals; notwithstanding this when we visited them at their houses the women with whoom we had any particular acquaintance or freindship would constantly ask us to partake of their meals, which we often did, eating out of the same basket and drinking out of the same cup. The old women however would by no means allow the same liberty but would esteem their victuals polluted if we touchd them; in some instances I have seen them throw them away when we had inadvertently defil'd them by handling the vessels which containd them.

What can be the motive for so unsocial a custom I cannot in any shape guess, especialy as they are a people in every other

Voyaging Accounts