While descending the Dhioliba to Tercy, I saw at a village a large calabash full of saltpetre which appeared very fine, but I cannot tell how the people procured it. I questioned a Moor, who merely replied: “It is powder,” and I could learn nothing more about it. The dealers in colat-nuts occupy one end of the market. They are ranged in two rows, with each a small pannier of colats before him, which they sell retail at the rate of eight or ten cowries a-piece. The low price proves the great abundance of this fruit in the country; but the usual price is from fifteen to twenty cowries.
There are also butchers in the market, who lay out their meat much in the same way as their brethren in Europe. They also thrust skewers through little pieces of meat, which they smoke-dry and sell retail. Great quantities of fish, fresh as well as dried, are brought to this market, in which are also to be had earthen pots, calabashes, mats, and salt; but the salt in the market is only sold retail; that which is sold wholesale is kept in the warehouses.
There are great numbers of hawkers in the streets, who cry the goods which they carry about with them, as in Europe. They sell stuffs made in the country, cured provisions, colat-nuts, honey, vegetable and animal butter, milk and fire-wood. The last article, which is scarce, is brought by women from the distance of twelve or fifteen miles round. Millet straw is sold in the market; and during my residence in this town, I saw, every evening, negresses purchasing each a certain quantity for ten cowries to cook their suppers: the ordinary faggots cost one hundred and twenty cowries, which are equal to twelve sous. Fortunately, this is not a cold country.
The Moors of Jenné do not keep shops. They employ confidential agents, or even slaves, to sell goods on their account. It is their custom to sit on mats before their doors, with some cakes of salt placed beside them, and in this way they wait for customers to buy their goods, or others who may wish to sell. Thus they accumulate, without giving themselves much trouble, great quantities of ivory, gold, rice, millet, honey, raw wax, cured provisions, and heaps of small onions. These articles they deposit in their store-houses, whence they forward them to Timbuctoo, where they have correspondents, who send them in exchange salt, tobacco, and European merchandise.
There are also marabouts among the negroes of Jenné, but the trade they carry on is not so considerable. The articles they deal in are seldom of great value, but consist chiefly of the zambalas, tamarinds, pimento, long pepper, leaves and fruit of the baobab, gombos, leaves and fruit of Guinea sorrel, pistachios, beans, and a number of small articles which are brought at Jenné by the people of the caravans. They also send to Timbuctoo calabashes and earthen pots for culinary purposes. The wax purchased at Jenné is used for candles, which are made without moulds and generally consumed through the country. Quantities are sent to Timbuctoo, where there is a great demand for them.
The Moorish merchants resident in Jenné, about thirty or forty in number, occupy the best houses, which have besides the advantage of being situated near the market. The principal trade of the place is in their hands. They form companies of several partners, and are owners of large barges, which carry cargoes of native produce to Timbuctoo.
Jenné was called by the early travellers the Land of Gold. However, that metal is not produced in the environs, but it is frequently brought to Jenné by the Mandingoes of the Kong country and the merchants of Bouré. It forms a principal branch of commerce for these rich traders. They also deal in slaves, whom they send to Tafilet, and to other quarters, as Mogador, Tunis, and Tripoli. I have seen men leading these unfortunate beings about the streets, and crying them for sale at the rate of twenty-five, thirty, or forty thousand cowries, according to their age. I was grieved to see such an insult offered to human nature. Such of these poor creatures as I observed at Jenné in the families of Moors, who all keep a considerable number of them, are not the most to be pitied; they are well fed, well clothed, and not hard worked. Their lot would be preferable to that of the peasantry of some countries of Europe, if any thing could compensate for the loss of liberty. In general they become confidential servants, who take care of the house in the absence of the master, or pack the merchandise and ship it. I remarked that these masters often gave them cowries to purchase what they liked. It was pleasing to witness conduct so well calculated to promote fidelity adopted towards them. They are indeed entrusted with whole sacks of cowries to count, without any apprehension of their stealing them.
The town of Jenné is about two miles and half in circumference; it is surrounded by a very ill constructed earth wall, about ten feet high, and fourteen inches thick. There are several gates, but they are small. The houses are built of bricks dried in the sun. The sand of the isle of Jenné is mixed with a little clay, and it is employed to make bricks of a round form which are sufficiently solid. The houses are as large as those of European villages. The greater part have only one story, like Haggi-Mohammed’s, which I have already described. They are all terraced, have no windows externally, and the apartments receive no air except from an inner court. The only entrance, which is of ordinary size, is closed by a door made of wooden planks, pretty thick, and apparently sawed. The door is fastened on the inside by a double iron chain, and on the outside by a wooden lock made in the country. Some however have iron locks. The apartments are all long and narrow. The wails, especially the outer, are well plastered with sand, for they have no lime. In each house there is a staircase leading to the terrace; but there are no chimneys, and consequently the slaves cook in the open air. The streets are not straight, but they are broad enough for a country in which no carriages are used; eight or nine persons may walk in them abreast; they are kept in good order, being swept almost daily. The environs of Jenné are marshy and entirely destitute of trees. Some clumps of ronniers are however seen on slight elevations at very remote distances. Before the rains set in, the plains receive some tillage, and are all sown with rice, which grows with the increase of the water of the river; the slaves are the cultivators of this grain. There was also on the banks of the river some gombo, tobacco, and giraumons. I was told that in the rainy season they grow cabbage, carrots, and European turnips, the seed of which is brought from Tafilet. In the marshes is found a kind of forage, which is cut and dried for the cattle. In places not exposed to the inundation they cultivate only millet and maize.
The town of Jenné is full of bustle and animation; every day numerous caravans of merchants are arriving and departing with all kinds of useful productions. In Jenné there is a mosque built of earth, surmounted by two massive but not high towers; it is rudely constructed, though very large. It is abandoned to thousands of swallows, which build their nests in it. This occasions a very disagreeable smell, to avoid which, the custom of saying prayers in a small outer court has become common. In the environs of the mosque, to which I often went, I always observed a number of beggars, reduced to mendicity by old age, blindness, or other infirmities.
The town is shaded by some baobabs, mimosas, date-trees, and ronniers. I remarked another kind of tree, the name of which I do not know.