Rev. Mr. Townsend has a small fund at his disposal for assisting slaves to redeem themselves. He has helped by this means several to obtain liberty. The money is usually paid for them without any other condition than a promise to repay it when able to do so. I was told of one instance where a party so helped had not been heard of for two or three years: when he was almost forgotten, he one day appeared and refunded gratefully the whole amount, pleading bad health for not doing so before.
One of the most marked characteristics of the Africans, not only in this section, but all along the Western coast, is the grace and symmetry of their forms, so well yet so unostentatiously displayed by their ordinary costume. Nor can there be any wonder on this account, considering their freedom from all those habits of civilized life so contrary to nature, and which tend so much to the physical deformity that so often offends good taste.
The issue of the child of slave parents, marrying an "Omo olu wabi" is deemed "eru idili," or a slave connected with the family. An absolute slave is called "eru." One in pawn, placed in that condition by another, is termed "wafa:" one voluntarily placing himself in pawn is "Faru so fa." A favorite slave, "eru," at the death of his master is seldom if ever considered any longer an eru, but becomes "eru idili," and generally marries in the family, in which case his children, if by free mothers, become absolutely free.
