CHAPTER VIII.
Countries South of the Niger.
The account which the Shereef has given of such of the kingdoms to the South of the Niger as he himself has visited, is too deficient in geographical information to furnish a clear and determinate idea of this part of his travels: and though the names of the principal States in whose capitals he traded, or through whose dominions he passed, may be used with advantage as the means of future enquiry, and are therefore inserted in the map which accompanies this Narrative; yet the places assigned them must be considered as in some degree conjectural. That the line of his journey was towards the Gold Coast, there is, however, the strongest reason to believe; and the following brief account of his remarks may lead to conclusions which are neither uninteresting nor unimportant.
From that part of the Niger which forms the southern limit of the great Empire of Cashna, to the Kingdom of Tonouwah, which borders on the coast of the Christians, and of which the Town of Assenté is said to be the capital, a succession of hills, among which are mountains of a stupendous height, diversifies or constitutes the general face of the country. Most of the lands are described as already cleared, but some particular districts are still incumbered with woods of a vast extent; and though for the most part the highlands are pastured by innumerable stocks of sheep, and by herds of cows and goats, and the vales exhibit the captivating view of successive villages, encompassed with corn and rice, and fruits of various kinds, yet there are places of native sterility and eternal barrenness.
The combined occupations of the shepherd and of the husbandman compose the general employment of the people; while the cotton cloth, and the goat-skins of the red and of the yellow dyes, that are offered in several of the towns for sale, announce the rudiments of future manufactures, and perhaps of an extensive commerce.
Exempted by the nature of their climate from many of those hardships from which, in other countries, dress is the principal protection, a large proportion of the inhabitants wear only the covering that decency requires. But most of the Mahometans, as the mark of a religion which they are proud to profess, adorn their heads with the folds of the turban, and also adopt, at least in some of the States, the cotton shirt, which is so much worn in the empires of Cashna and Bornou.
Tents, which are formed of the hides of cows or of buffaloes, and which are peculiarly suited to the shepherd life, are the only dwellings of multitudes of the Negros; while the huts, which others erect with the branches of trees, are of a construction almost equally simple.
Several of the towns are described as surrounded by walls; and bows and arrows are mentioned as the common instruments of war.