OCR Text |
Show 1 70 PICTURE OF A?RICA AT H0hlE. a white man, but he was convinced, from my appearance, that I was a very poor one. "In the courseofthe·day several women, hearing that I was going to Sego, (a town on the Niger, containing SO,OOO inhabitants,) came and begged me to inquire or· Mansong, the king, wl~at was become of their children. One woman in particular, told me, that her son's name was Mamadee ; that he was no heathen ; but, prayed to God, morning and evening, and had been taken fi·om her about three years ago by Mansong's army, since which she hac\ never heard of him. She saicl she often dreamed about him, hnd begged me, if I should see him in Bambarra, or in my own country, to tell him that his mother and sister were still alive. " I reached Dyngyee about noon, but the Dooty and most of the inhabitants had gone into the fields to cultivate corn. An old F oulah observing me wandering about the town, desired me to come to his hut, where I was. well entertained; and the Dooty, when he returned, sent me some victuals for myself, and corn for my horse. u In the morning, whep I was about to dc::part, my landlord, with a great deal of diffidence, begged me to give him a lock of my hair. He had been told, he said, that white men's hair made a saphie, that would give to the possessor all the knowledge of white men. My land. lord's thirst for learning was such, that, with cutting and pulling, he cropped one side of my head pretty closely. " I reached a small town called Wassiboo, about 12 o'clock. Cultivation is carried on hem on a very extensive scale ; and as the natives themselves express it, " hunger is never known." In cultivating the soil the men and women work together.,, On Mr. Park's arrival at one of the ferries of Sego, for the purpose of crossing the Niger to see the king, he says, " we found a great number waiting for a passage ;-they |