In the afternoon, a young Jenna woman came to visit them, accompanied by a female friend from Houssa.  Her hair was traced with such extraordinary neatness, that John Lander expressed a wish to examine it more minutely.  The girl had never beheld such a thing as a white man before, and permission was granted with a great deal of coyness, mixed up perhaps with a small portion of fear, which was apparent as she was slowly untying her turban.  No sooner, however, was the curiosity of the travellers gratified, than a demand of two hundred kowries was insisted on by her companion, that, it was alleged, being the price paid in the interior by the male sex to scrutinize a lady’s hair.  They were obliged to conform to the usual custom, at which the women expressed themselves highly delighted.  The hair, which had excited the admiration of the travellers, was made up in the shape of a hussar’s helmet, and very ingeniously traced on the top.  Irregular figures were likewise braided on each side of the head, and a band of worked thread, dyed in indigo, encircled it below the natural hair, which seemed, by its tightness and closeness, to have been glued fast to the skin.  This young Jenna woman was by far the most interesting, both in face and form, of any they had seen since their landing; and her prettiness was rendered more engaging by her retiring modesty and perfect artlessness of manner, which, whether observed in black or white, are sure to command the esteem and reverence of the other sex.  Her eyelids were stained with a bluish-black powder, which is the same kind of substance, it is supposed, as that described in a note in Mr. Beckford’s Vatheck.  Her person was excessively clean, and her apparel flowing, neat, and graceful.  Before taking leave, the girl’s unworthy companion informed John Lander, that her protegee was married, but that as her husband was left behind at Jenna, she would prevail on her to visit the travellers in the evening after sunset.  Of course they expressed their abhorrence of the proposal, and were really grieved to reflect, that, with so much meekness, innocence, modesty, and beauty, their timid friend should be exposed to the wiles of a crafty and wicked woman.  On this occasion, John Lander says, “We have longed to discover a solitary virtue lingering amongst the natives of this place, but as yet our search has been ineffectual.”

As a contrast to the youthful individual just described, an old withered woman entered their residence in the evening, and began professing the most unbounded affection for both the travellers.  She had drank so much rum that she could scarcely stand.  She first began to pay her attentions to John Lander, who, being the more sprightly of the two, she thought was the most likely to accede to her wishes; she happened, however, to be the owner of a most forbidding countenance, and four of her front teeth had disappeared from her upper jaw, which caused a singular and disagreeable indention of the upper lip.  The travellers were disgusted with the appearance and hateful familiarity of this ancient hag, who had thus paid so ill a compliment to their vanity, and subsequently they forced her out of the yard without any ceremony.