These tribes carry on very little trade, for they sell nothing but salt, which they buy of the Bagos. For the rest, they are extremely indolent, and consequently work very little. Most of them do nothing but clear the ground for the purpose of sowing rice, or planting cassava, and they do not even take the trouble to break it up, though it would be more productive, if they would bestow a little labour upon it.
As they are not disciples of Mahomet, they drink a great quantity of spirits; and the palm-trees which abound in their country supply them with abundance of a very sweet wine. The fruit which they call caura also affords an agreeable beverage, when bruised and fermented with water; it is intoxicating, and I have been told that it very much resembles cyder. They sometimes eat the pulp of this fruit; for the idle (and these form the majority of them) have no other resource for satisfying their appetite. They have another liquor, called jin-jin-di, made with the root of a plant of the same name; this they burn, and then mix with the bark of a tree (which I could never get any body to shew me); the whole being pounded together, they pour water upon it and stir it briskly for a couple of hours: after having left it to ferment for two or three days, they draw it off into another vessel; it thus acquires a sweet and agreeable flavour. It is always drunk at feasts and entertainments, because it promotes digestion. The root jin-jin-di is also used, without any admixture, as an excellent aperient medicine.
The Landamas and the Nalous inhabit straw huts, like those of other negroes in the interior of Africa; these huts are small and dirty. Their costume varies much. I have seen numbers of them in the neighbourhood of Kakondy with breeches like Europeans, a pagne over their shoulders, and a hat on their head; others again without breeches, with a vest and a coussabe. The women wear pagnes.
The soil near the banks of the Rio Nuñez is fertile; all the trees which flourish in the colonies would grow there if they were cultivated. The natives, accustomed to live in idleness, in their hot and even scorching climate, do not trouble themselves with any thing of the kind; the Europeans alone have gardens.
Bees are very common in this part of the country, and the inhabitants are fond of honey, which they obtain by placing hives in the trees. To get at the honey without accident, they let down the hive, by means of a rope, to a certain distance from the ground, and light under it a great fire of damp herbs; the smoke drives away the bees, and the negroes are left masters of the hive. The wax which they make is sold to the Europeans.
Bees are so numerous, that it is not uncommon for them to swarm into the huts and drive out the inhabitants; recourse is then had to smoke to dislodge them. The short time that I passed at Kakondy not permitting me to visit the Bagos, I shall just relate what I was told of those people.
These negroes are idolaters, and they have hitherto preserved their independence. Their vicinity to the islands off the coast, and the facility with which they can transport themselves thither, may have prevented the almamy of Fouta-Dhialon from disturbing their tranquillity. They dwell near the mouth of the river; and this country, which is flat and fertile, affords abundance of rich pasturage for their numerous cattle. It is singular that this tribe, who are in many respects stupid enough, have never found out the great advantage there would be in milking their cows and ewes; their cattle however prosper, and they do not lose as many as the negroes who are accustomed to milk them.
The Bagos are very different in their manners from the Landamas their neighbours. They are more industrious, and consequently more prosperous; they inhabit a fertile country, which they cultivate with care; their principal produce is rice. They contrive to plough their fields in the European manner; and the instrument which they use for this purpose is a kind of wooden coulter two feet long, with a handle of six or seven feet.
As the country is flat, they take care to form channels to drain off the water. When the inundation is very great, they take advantage of it to fill their little reservoirs, that they may provide against the drought and supply the rice with the moisture which it requires.
They are also accustomed to sow the rice close to their villages, and then transplant it into their fields when it has risen to the height of six inches. This is the business of the women, who also weed it. The men get in the harvest which is very abundant. In this lovely country, so rich in natural advantages, the women are in the habit of going naked all their lives; young and old, without distinction, have no other dress than a single strip of calico, seven or eight feet long, and five inches wide, which they wind round their waist, and pass between the thighs. These poor creatures perform all the work of the house; they cook, and labour in the fields and at the salt-pits.