DECREE of the Conseil du Cap, concerning Masks or Iron Heads

Having seen by the Conseil the Requisition of the Procureur-Général du Roi, tending that it might please the Court, in view of his present requisitions, together with the attached copy of a letter inserted in the Journal général de France, and in the Journal de Luxembourg; the said letter signed Chaperon, Avocat au Parlement, and dated from Libourne in Guyenne, 26 October 1784, to record for him the denunciation of the abuse that can be made of masks or iron heads, devised originally to prevent the new nègres from giving themselves up to the depraved appetite that leads them to eat earth; accordingly, to make very express prohibitions and bans against all persons of whatever quality and condition they may be, from bringing into the jurisdiction of the Court, or manufacturing, selling, keeping or employing there, under any pretext, the masks or iron heads in question, on pain of a fine of 3,000 livres, and of exemplary punishment in case of repeat offense.