The Mandingoes, generally speaking, are of a mild, sociable, and obliging disposition.  The men are commonly above the middle size, well-shaped, strong, and capable of enduring great labour.  The women are good-natured, sprightly, and agreeable.  The dress of both sexes is composed of cotton cloth of their own manufacture:  that of the men is a loose frock, not unlike a surplice, with drawers which reach half-way down the leg; and they wear sandals on their feet, and white cotton caps on their heads.  The women’s dress consists of two pieces of cloth, each of which is about six feet long and three broad.  One of these they wrap round their waist, which, hanging down to the ankles, answers the purpose of a petticoat; the other is thrown negligently over the bosom and shoulders.

This account of their clothing is indeed nearly applicable to the natives of all the different countries in this part of Africa; a peculiar national mode is observable only in the head-dresses of the women.

Thus, in the countries of the Gambia, the females wear a sort of bandage, which they call jalla.  It is a narrow strip of cotton cloth wrapped many times round, immediately over the forehead.  In Bondou, the head is encircled with strings of white beads, and a small plate of gold is worn in the middle of the forehead.  In Kasson the ladies decorate their heads in a very tasteful and elegant manner with white seashells.  In Kaarta and Ludamar, the women raise their hair to a great height by the addition of a pad (as the ladies did formerly in Great Britain), which they decorate with a species of coral brought from the Red Sea by pilgrims returning from Mecca, and sold at a great price.

In the construction of their dwelling-houses the Mandingoes also conform to the general practice of the African nations in this part of the continent, contenting themselves with small and incommodious hovels.  A circular mud wall, about four feet high, upon which is placed a conical roof, composed of the bamboo cane, and thatched with grass, forms alike the palace of the king and the hovel of the slave.  Their household furniture is equally simple.  A hurdle of canes placed upon upright sticks, about two feet from the ground, upon which is spread a mat or bullock’s hide, answers the purpose of a bed; a water jar, some earthen pots for dressing their food; a few wooden bowls and calabashes, and one or two low stools, compose the rest.

As every man of free condition has a plurality of wives, it is found necessary (to prevent, I suppose, matrimonial disputes) that each of the ladies should be accommodated with a hut to herself; and all the huts belonging to the same family are surrounded by a fence constructed of bamboo canes, split and formed into a sort of wicker-work.  The whole enclosure is called a sirk, or surk.  A number of these enclosures, with narrow passages between them, form what is called a town; but the huts are generally placed without any regularity, according to the caprice of the owner.  The only rule that seems to be attended to is placing the door towards the south-west, in order to admit the sea-breeze.