With the exception of the king and queen, and their immediate companions, who had a change of dress about once a week, the people are in general very dirty, sometimes not washing themselves for twelve or fourteen days together.  Besides the queen, who, as has been already stated, wore a profusion of ivory and bone ornaments in her hair, some of a square shape, and others about as thick as a shilling, but rather smaller, strings of which she also wore about her wrists and ankles; many of the women were decorated in a similar manner, and they seemed to consider hardly any favour too great to be conferred on the person who would make them a present of these precious ornaments.  Gold ear-rings were much worn, some of the women had also rings on their fingers, but these appeared to Adams to be of brass; and as many of the latter had letters upon them, he concluded, both from this circumstance and from their workmanship, that they were not made by the negroes, but obtained from the moorish traders.

The ceremony of marriage amongst the upper ranks at Timbuctoo is, for the bride to go in the day-time to the king’s house, and to remain there until after sunset, when the man who is to be her husband goes to fetch her away.  This is usually followed by a feast the same night, and a dance.  Adams did not observe what ceremonies were used in the marriages of the lower classes.

As it is common to have several concubines besides a wife, the women are continually quarrelling and fighting; there is, however, a marked difference in the degree of respect with which they are treated by the husband, the wife always having a decided pre-eminence.  The negroes, however, appeared to Adams to be jealous and severe with all their women, frequently beating them apparently for very little cause.

The women appear to suffer very little from child-birth, and they will be seen walking about as usual the day after such an event.  It is their practice to grease a child all over soon after its birth, and to expose it for about an hour to the sun.  The infants at first are of a reddish colour, but become black in three or four days.

Illicit intercourse appeared to be but little regarded amongst the lower orders, and chastity among the women in general seemed to be preserved only so far as their situations or circumstances rendered it necessary for their personal safety or convenience.  In the higher ranks, if a woman prove with child, the man is punished with slavery, unless he will take the woman for his wife, and maintain her.  Adams knew an instance of a young man, who, having refused to marry a woman by whom he had a child, was on that account condemned to slavery.  He afterwards repented, but was not then permitted to retract his refusal, and was sent away to be sold.