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Another cultural aspect that was practiced within the community was circumcision. This was practiced like the Jews. This involved making offerings as well as feasts on those occasions just like the Jews. The children were named based on the occurrence of an event, circumstances or imagined foreboding during their birth. For instance, the former slave was named Olaudah that meant fortunate or vicissitude. Such names were mentioned with greater reverence. The community was characterized by high standards of decency which was followed like religion. Those persons who touched the dead were obligated to wash as well as purify themselves before they could go into any dwelling house. Additionally, women were forbidden from entering the dwelling houses or even touch any individual. I was kept away from my mother because I was fond of her hence could be tempted to touch her. I was placed in a little house that was made for the purposes of making offerings and purifications.
The community was characterized with the presence of priests as well as magicians. This is contrary to the fact that there were no public places of worship. These people calculated time, foretold events. They were even given the name Ah-affoe-way-cah meaning calculators. This practice was inherited since when they died, they were succeeded by their sons. Most of their valuable items were buried along with them. The magicians were also regarded as physicians and doctors. They engaged in bleeding by cupping. They also succeeded in expelling poisons as well as healing wounds. They mysteriously found ways of detecting jealousy, poisoning as well as theft. They derived this success from unbound influence over superstition of people as well as credulity. The narrator mentions an incident that occurred in West Indies where a woman had been putrefied, but the person who did it was not known.
Natives were considered to have fear and caution towards poison. Sellers had to kiss the eatables all round before they sold them to the buyers. This was also done when any meat or drink was bought. The natives also allowed certain type of snakes within their community. These snakes were considered harmless and would enjoy being handled. However, some of the snakes were poisonous and harmful. The narrator mentions of an analogy whereby one people sprung from the other people. He later adds that some of the people that postulated this concept was Dr. Grill, who presumes the pedigree of Africans from Afra and Afer, who were the descendants of Abraham. The narrator also highlights the form of government that governed their territory. That is; the community was governed by the chiefs, judges, wise men, elders as well as the heads of the families. This type of governance was like the primitive form of governance practiced by the Israelites. The law of retaliation was also practiced within the community. The community practiced a type of religion that was emulated from the Israelites. However, it was broken and eclipsed by a cloud with which tradition, time and ignorance developed. In other words, the narrator claims that there is a relationship between the Jews and the African community mentioned in this extract. The narrator is incapable of determining the reason behind the difference in color between the modern Jews and the Eboan Africans. This is an issue that many bright minds have tried to engage with, with no success.
There also some elements of interracial relationships have emerged among the native and the Portuguese. The mixture of the Portuguese discovers and the natives has resulted into a new breed that more or else resembles the complexion of the Portuguese. These persons are characterized by a woolly quality of hair as well as the retaining of the smattering Portuguese language.