At six in the morning of the 16th, we prepared to depart. On going out I saw some palm-trees of the species which produces oil. They are not by far so thriving here as on the coast. We proceeded E.N.E. over a very fertile soil, consisting of grey sand mixed with fine gravel. The country was woody; I observed some tamarind-trees and many cés. About nine in the morning, after travelling six miles and a half, we reached Niourot, a little village, where we could purchase nothing but with cowries, which are the current money among all the inhabitants of upper Bambara. They receive them from the European merchants who trade on the western coasts, and from the Moors on the shores of the Mediterranean. The cowries are just beginning to be current in this part of the country. The price of a fowl is eighty cowries. In the language of the country kémé signifies eighty, and to express a hundred the people say eighty and twenty, or kémé nimouya[58].
We were lodged in a very large hut where I saw, not without astonishment, two seats resembling sofas, each made out of the trunk of a tree. I regarded them as curiosities among a people who have no carpenter’s tools. The legs, the arms, and the back, were all made out of one piece of wood, which was of a red colour and very hard. These sofas were really executed with some taste; they must have been a work of considerable time, but in those countries time is not so valuable as with us. The people have no other tools than small hatchets and poniards.
I observed that our host kept about a dozen little dogs, which, when sufficiently fattened, were destined for food. He had also a number of chickens; he fed them with termites, which his children brought from the fields. In general I did not see in this part of the country those great hills of the white ant (termites) which are found on the shores of the Senegal, where they are sometimes eight or nine feet high; those which I saw here are not more than eighteen inches or two feet high. In this village all the heads of families have huts or cabins built of earth, like that which the chief of Sananso allotted to me. The women’s huts are of straw. We procured a little millet for our supper, for which we paid in colat-nuts. The wells are at a little distance from the village, and, if I may judge from the rope used for drawing up the water, they are not above twelve, or fifteen feet deep.
At half past six, on the morning of the 17th of January, we took leave of our host, whom we had taken care to pay on the preceding evening.
On leaving the village we met several Bambaras, who had about twenty dogs tied to a single cord; these animals were, I was informed, going to be fattened. As soon as they saw us they saluted us with such a loud barking that we could not hear ourselves speak. Our road lay to the N.N.E. and we passed a large village, the name of which I could not learn. We continued to travel over a soil composed of grey sand; the vegetation was the same as it had been for several preceding days. After travelling about eleven miles, we halted about eleven o’clock in the morning at Talé, a village containing three or four hundred inhabitants. They gave us several huts to lodge in. The huts in this village are not so large as in those which we had previously passed through; but they are of the same form. I walked through the streets, which are narrow and dirty. My appearance excited the curiosity of the Bambaras, but they did not annoy me. The women, who were exceedingly dirty, have all a bit of calabash, or a thin slip of wood, stuck into the under lip. I could scarcely persuade myself that this was a mere matter of taste, and questioned my guide upon the subject: he assured me that it was the fashion of the country. I was equally at a loss to conceive how this bit of wood, which was merely stuck through the lip, could keep its place. The women allowed me to see that this curious ornament was brought through to the inner part of the lip, and they laughed heartily at my astonishment. I asked one of them to remove the piece of wood from her lip; but she told me that if she did so the saliva would run through the hole. In short, I was quite amazed that coquetry could induce them to disfigure themselves in this manner; yet it is the general custom of this country. I saw young girls eight or ten years of age, who had in their lower lip little pieces of wood of the circumference of a pen, pointed at one end and stuck into the flesh. They renew it frequently, and every time use a larger bit of wood, which gradually widens the hole, until it becomes large enough to admit a piece of wood of the size of a half-crown piece. I observed that this singular and inconvenient ornament contributed to their uncleanliness.
The old men are provided with a bull’s tail for the purpose of driving away the flies, which are very numerous and troublesome in this country. I did not see in this part of Africa any of those musquitoes which are so tormenting to travellers in the neighbourhood of the Senegal.
The inhabitants of this village are kind, affable, and hospitable: they invited me to partake of their little suppers of yams and mouse sauce.
Their huts are small and dirty. They cultivate rice and yams; their crops usually remain in the fields all the dry season, and when the rains commence they remove them to little straw store-houses, which are erected in the middle of the court-yards. The people are poor; they possess but few slaves, and scanty herds and flocks; but their soil, being fertile and well cultivated, yields them more than they want. I saw but few horses, and these were miserable-looking animals. I did not observe that the inhabitants of this village worship a deity. Like the people of Wassoulo, they have no religion; but they entertain a high respect for the disciples of Mahomet and the Koran, which they regard as a sort of magic. They always wear saphies,[59] suspended from their necks and different parts of their bodies. They hang them up at the entrance of their huts, as a protection against fire, thieves, and other accidents.
Throughout all this part of the country there are Mandingo villages, the inhabitants of which are Mahometans. They are independent of the Bambaras, as at Timé, Sambatikila, Tangrera, and other villages further southward. The Bambaras call them Diaulas or Jaulas, and though they might, owing to their superiority of numbers, molest them if they chose, yet they refrain from doing so, and go to their villages to sell them the superfluous produce of their harvest. The Bambaras, in general, speak the Mandingo language; but they have a particular dialect, which, owing to the rapidity with which I travelled among them, I had no opportunity of learning. This country is at the distance of a month’s journey from Ségo; but it is independent of the latter. It is governed by a number of petty chiefs, who receive provisions by way of tribute; but they are moderate in their exactions, as they know the poverty of their subjects. The Mandingoes look upon the Bambaras as great thieves; yet the little store-houses which stand defenceless in their yards are always respected. But the Bambaras, like their accusers, whenever they see glass trinkets, scissors, knives, or locks and keys, things which to them are as valuable as gold, cannot resist the desire of possessing them; and, being too poor to buy, they endeavour to obtain what they want, not by force but by cunning. Throughout all the country I did not see a woman with ear-rings or a gold necklace. All their ornaments consist of the glass trinkets, which they procure from the merchants who come from Jenné. My guide, Karamo-osila, advised me not to shew them the contents of my bag; but I had no need of this advice. I should have taken good care not to open it in their presence, for, notwithstanding my good opinion of the people of these parts, I had no inclination to put their honesty to the test.
On the 18th of January, at six in the morning, we again set out, and travelled nine miles and a half northward. The soil still continued gravelly and the vegetation unvaried. About ten o’clock we arrived at Borandou, a village containing four or five hundred inhabitants. The huts are chiefly built of earth and have terraced roofs, which render them very inconvenient, because the smoke has no outlet but the door. The streets are dirty, narrow and crooked. There is a market twice a week for the strangers who happen to be in the neighbourhood, and whenever caravans pass another market is opened for the sale of provisions. I exchanged a few glass beads for some cowries, with which I purchased a little milk. This refreshed me, for it was long since I had tasted any. I saw some women in the streets carrying things to sell, which they cried, as in our European towns. I also observed that the Bambaras hang on the outside of their huts the heads of all the animals they eat; this is looked upon as a mark of grandeur. Every morning when they go to the fields they carry fire with them for roasting yams. They drink river water, and when they think they cannot obtain it, they bring water from the wells in calabashes. In the evening I was looking attentively at an old woman who had a piece of calabash in her lip, and I again reflected on the singularity of the custom; she and her companions laughed at my astonishment, and when I rose to go away she beckoned me to stop for a moment, and fetched me a yam of which she made me a present.